Cape Town fights uphill battle against ocean and waterway sewage spills

Camps Bay Beach]. Photographer: [Chris von Ulmenstein].

Kristin Engel -15 October 2024

Sewage contamination incidents around parts of Cape Town’s coastline, and the City of Cape Town’s marine outfalls in Camps Bay, Hout Bay and Green Point, where sewage is pumped into the ocean daily, have sparked debate about public health, pollution and infrastructure failures.

Note: This story has been updated to removal several photographs. In earlier versions, the captions indicated that the discolouration in the water was caused by sewage flow. The City of Cape Town disputes this, saying it was caused by sediment in the water churned up by large swells. In the absence of water test results to confirm that the discolouration is caused by sewage outflows, we have decided to remove the pictures…

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