No Blue Flag for Santos
Mossel Bay’s popular Santos Beach has not been awarded coveted Blue Flag status for the coming holiday season, however, De Bakke, Hartenbos, and Little Brak beaches still boast this prestigious accolade.
Sixty-two Blue Flags will be flown proudly at 44 beaches and seven marinas and by 11 sustainable tourism boats in South Africa over the forthcoming 2017/18 South African Blue Flag season, which opens officially on 1 November this year.
This season’s Blue Flags were announced at the national launch hosted by the Kouga Municipality at Dolphin Beach in Jeffreys Bay recently.
Wessa Ecotourism general manager Vincent Shacks told the Mossel Bay Advertiser Santos Beach was not awarded Blue Flag status due to concerns about water quality.
To achieve Blue Flag status, as many as 33 different criteria spanning four aspects of coastal management must be met and maintained: water quality; environmental education and information; environmental management; and safety and services. Each Blue Flag site is compelled to conduct several environmental education activities during the year and to practise effective and efficient conservation management.
Water quality ‘not poor’
“Unfortunately for Santos, the beach water quality did not pass the Blue Flag international standard, which is measured using the beach’s
last four Blue Flag seasons. This does not necessarily mean the water quality is poor at the beach, but rather that it does not represent what we currently classify as ‘excellent’ water quality.” Shacks said.
“The water quality is analysed each Blue Flag season by an accredited and independent laboratory. The fact that Santos has committed to Blue Flag over the years has fortunately allowed us to actually see that there may be an issue with the water quality and attention can be given to this as we work to get the beach back on the programme in the coming seasons,” Shacks added.
Blue Flag status was awarded to Santos beach for the first time in 2009. Blackbird Administrators was appointed by the Mossel Bay Municipality to undertake a review of the Blue Flag water results of Santos beach. This review included the past four years’ results, from 2013 to 2017.
The purpose of this review was to compare the results to the Blue Flag standards and determine if the Blue Flag water quality standards had been complied with.
The Santos Beach water quality results of the four seasons from 2013 to 2017 were analysed and reviewed. The 95th percentile method was used to determine compliance with the Blue Flag requirements. Blue Flag water results were obtained from the Mossel Bay Municipality and Pathcare Mossel Bay.
Two spikes
According to a report by Vivien Stadler of Blackbird Administrators, there were only one or two spikes in the Streptococci and E.Coli readings over the past four years that were above the thresholds. The 95th percentile calculation, taking all four years into consideration, however, indicated that both Streptococci and E.Coli were above the thresholds of the Blue Flag criteria.
Water within acceptable limits
“The samples that did not comply were still within what is acceptable limits for recreational use in terms of South Africa’s Marine Recreational Water Quality guidelines,” Mossel Bay municipal environmental officer, Warren Manuel, stressed.
The municipality’s director of community services, Elize Nel, said: “An average of 95% had to be obtained to be considered to receive the award again. Unfortunately the recalculated results for Santos Beach over the four years was 94,23% and Santos Beach was not awarded a Blue Flag for 2017/18. Individually each year Santos Beach received excellent results on all aspects with regards to the Blue Flag requirements, but for the four years combined, the water test did not reach the target of 95%.
“Over the four years under review, 26 samples were taken and tested for Streptococci and two of the samples, one on 9 December 2013 and the other on 11 January 2016 exceeded the targeted limit. Over the four years 26 samples were also tested for E.Coli and only one sample, taken on 6 January 2014, exceeded the targeted limit.”
In South Africa, the Blue Flag programme is managed by Wessa and participating coastal municipalities.
The Blue Flag season runs all year round each year, depending on the beach.
Municipalities are required to apply for Blue Flag status each year and the Blue Flag standards are only enforced at the beaches over the participating beach’s stated season, which varies from just two months of the year to the full 12 months.
The water quality is analysed each Blue Flag season by an accredited and independent laboratory.