Many South Africans are counting the days to their annual summer holiday.  For those lucky ones, holidays are synonymous with beaches and fun in the sun.  All 27 Blue Flag beaches are ready for the holiday season and municipalities have put in place the plans and resources to ensure that we all have a safe and happy holidays.     Remember that all Blue Flag beaches offer an active security presence on the beach during the day, activities and programmes of interest for children and people on the beach, cleaners on duty on the beach and in the toilets, and if you want to check out what the quality of the sea water is, look out for the Blue Flag beach noticeboard where you will find a table showing the latest water quality.   The sea-water at all Blue Flag beaches is checked regularly for health risks and if the levels of bacteria go over accepted health levels, the Blue Flag is withdrawn at the beach.

Something that many people do not understand is that beaches have what is called a Blue Flag season, a time when the municipality must meet the Blue Flag standards.    For some beaches such as those in Kzn, this means 365 days of the year.   For others, the season is shorter – sometimes 6 months, sometimes only 4 weeks.    The map on the About Blue Flag page shows exactly when Blue Flag is run on all the beaches in South Africa.    The season is decided on the time when the beach is most visited and the main “swimming” or holiday time.    Once this season is over, on most of our Blue Flag beaches, the Blue Flag management system is stopped, the flag no longer flies on the beach, and the beach is not expected to meet the Blue Flag standards.   If one is visiting a beach outside of the main holiday time, check to see whether the beach is still being managed according to Blue Flag standards.  As with all beaches around the world, during the quiet or autumn/winter months, the lifeguards, cleaners and security are no longer on duty and once should not expect these services to be in place.