Knysna’s dropped the Blue Flag ball ahead of festive season
KNYSNA - While Plettenberg Bay, George, Wilderness and Mossel Bay can all revel in receiving Blue Flag Awards for their beaches last week, Knysna was left in the shadows, without a single Blue Flag beach to its name for the 2022/23 season.
Last week the Blue Flag status certificates for the 2022/23 season were handed out by Wessa (the Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa) during a ceremony held at Lookout Beach in Plett on Thursday 3 November. There was much joy and jubilation for Plett and Bitou, as they have no less than five Blue Flag status beaches this season. But, with Knysna having had two Blue Flag beaches last year (Brentonon-Sea and Buffalo Bay), attendees couldn't help but wander what had happened.
Then it became as clear as the skies in which the Blue Flags should be waving over Brenton and Buffalo Bay - Knysna Municipality had not submitted the requisite number of water quality samples from the previous season (2021/22) in order to qualify for 2022/23 status. This was confirmed by Tevya Lotriet, Wessa's national coastal coordinator. "As per Blue Flag Criterion 7, the beach must fully comply with the water quality sampling and frequency requirements. A minimum number of five samples must be taken over the Blue Flag season," Lotriet explained.
When asked why the required samples were not submitted, the reply from municipal spokesperson
Christopher Bezuidenhoudt was, "Knysna Municipality applied for the 2022/2023 Blue Flag status after (sic) an assessment by the International Blue Flag jury the Brenton-on-Sea and Buffalo Bay beaches were found to be non-compliant. We are committed to working towards getting our beaches back to full Blue Flag status."
Consolation prize
There were two consolations for Knysna - Thesen Islands and Thesen Harbour Town also received Blue Flag status in the marina category, and Brenton-on-Sea and Buffalo Bay were given pilot site status for the 2022/23 season. "Pilot sites are those sites which don't yet meet all the Blue Flag criteria. These sites are [rewarded] for working towards meeting the minimum requirements for full Blue Flag status in safety, amenities, cleanliness and environmental standards," explained Lotriet.
She said while Brenton-on-Sea and Buffalo Bay did not meet the criteria for full status this year, they are still recognised as beaches on the pilot programme working towards becoming full status again next year. "The Knysna Municipality is committed to achieving this and has Wessa's full support. We hope to see more pilot sites converted to full status next year. Essentially it is a stepping stone to obtaining Blue Flag status and Wessa is committed to working with these sites to help them achieve standards of excellence."
Sedgefield
Another unfortunate Blue Flag situation, according to Lotriet, is that no submissions were even made to Wessa for beaches in Sedgefield, despite there being a number of fantastic beaches strewn along the coastline of the Slow Town.
"Blue Flag is awarded and assessed annually and each year an application must be submitted by the local municipality to Wessa and is then assessed by a national and then international jury," she said. "It would be great to have Sedgefield sites on the programme so we welcome the local municipality to get in touch for the next application round in March 2023."
Knysna Municipality did not comment on the lack of Sedgefield submissions by the time of going to print.