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Durban – THE eThekwini Municipality will have only one Blue Flag waving on its coastline during the 2019/20 South African Blue Flag season. Five Blue Flags will be flown at Ray Nkonyeni Municipality (Margate) beaches – Marina, Trafalgar, Southport, Umzumbe and Hibberdene – while the only Blue Flag in Durban will be flown at uShaka beach.
The province has 19 beaches participating in the Pilot Blue Flag Programme, where beaches are recognised for working towards attaining full Blue Flag status. The eThekwini Municipality has 11 beaches in the programme, KwaDukuza has four, and Ray Nkonyeni and Mandeni have two each.
The announcement was made at the National Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa Blue Flag launch last week. Before the announcement of the 2019/20 Blue Flag Programme, the eThekwini Municipality only had two Blue Flag-status beaches, uShaka and Westbrook, while Umgababa and eManzimtoti beaches were under the pilot programme.
In June, eThekwini decided to apply to include six beaches (Vetchies, Anstey’s, North and South beaches, uMhlanga Main Beach and Umdloti Main Beach) under the programme. eThekwini Municipality had the first beach outside of Europe to be granted Blue Flag status in 2001.
Councillor Geoff Pullan said he was upset that the eThekwini Municipality only had one Blue Flag beach.
“This is a tourist city. We’ve got beautiful warm beaches but we’ve got only one Blue Flag, yet Cape Town has 10 Blue Flags and people can’t swim in the water. We’ve got 98km of coastline, but only one Blue Flag.”
Pullan said Blue Flag status was the easiest form of advertising, telling tourists about the level of safety and security, and amenities at beaches.
Overall, 64 Blue Flags will be flown at 45 beaches, 10 sustainable tourism boats and nine marinas nationally.