Cape Town beaches offer world-class water quality ahead of festive season and Muizenberg beachfront upgrade starts in February 2025.
The City of Cape Town is pleased to announce that Cape Town’s most popular beaches show world-class water quality results ahead of the summer festive season. This is based on independent analysis of water samples. Furthermore, the City will, until the end of January 2025, provide weekly updates – named a Summer Dashboard – on the 10 latest water quality results for each of the 30 most popular beaches along the coastline. The Summer Dashboard is available on the City’s website for easy access and transparency, and provides the enterococci counts, which is the international recognised gold standard indicator for coastal water quality in terms of associated risk to human health. Read more below:
The high resolution Summer Dashboard is available HERE.
Once again, Cape Town is getting ready for a bumper tourist season with world-class water quality results for Cape Town’s 30 most popular beaches. Those interested in the results for recreational nodes and coastal monitoring points can find the latest data on the City’s website. The data is updated weekly, visit the Coastal Water Quality
Muizenberg beachfront upgrade commencing in February
The City of Cape Town is on track to commence with the refurbishment of the Muizenberg beachfront by mid-February next year. The project entails major upgrades to public amenities and replacing the aged seawalls, and will be complete by the end of 2026. Engagements with stakeholders, business owners and the local community have commenced to inform them of the timeframes, anticipated impact, and measures to address inconveniences while work is ongoing. Read more below:
‘The refurbishment of the Muizenberg beachfront is one of the biggest capital projects the City’s Coastal Management branch will undertake in recent years. We are extremely excited about the revamp and the long-term benefits it will bring to the area, the local community, and visitors. The beach will remain open, but the reality is the work will have an impact on all of those who live and work in Muizenberg, and visitors frequenting the beachfront,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.
• The project will be done in phases and the first work will commence along the western section of Surfer’s Corner, next to the railway line. The beach will remain open and accessible at all times.
Location of the upgrade project
The upgrades will take place at Surfer’s Corner, on the western part of the beachfront along Beach Road, including the connection to the St James walkway, the Surfer’s Corner steps, the main promenade area and the existing informal gravel parking area along the railway line and eastern parking area.
The new revetment is a key element of the upgrade, designed by coastal engineering experts to protect the beachfront from future impacts of climate change such as increased wave action due to sea level rise and more frequent storm surges. The steps and promenade will be constructed with concrete to ensure its longevity and effectiveness in protecting the public beachfront. The areas landwards of the promenade will be paved with clay segmented pavers.
Other spaces included in the upgrade are the parking areas, ablution facility, pergola, playground, paved areas, station forecourt and soft landscaping. The number of informal trading opportunities will be retained, and accommodated during the construction.
Waves for Change will move to a newly constructed building near the northern corner of the formalised parking area. The current Waves for Change building will be modified to provide greater adaptive surfing opportunities, storage of beach access mats, equipment and wheelchairs. The Shark Spotters building remains as is.
‘Unfortunately, visitors will also have to cope with less parking while the construction is ongoing and traffic flow to and from the beachfront will be impacted as well. We will give more details about the construction and how activities will be accommodated on the beachfront in the new year. On the bright side, once done, the Muizenberg beachfront will be a quality destination for decades to come,’ said Alderman Andrews.
It’s all good news on the coastal front for the holiday season and to get more information on Cape Town beaches, see the Cape Town Green COASTAL Map.
WHAT: Cape Town beaches
WHERE: see the Cape Town Green COASTAL Map
INFO: see links above
PHOTOS: Artist impressions of the Muizenberg beachfront upgrade project.
