The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the City of Tshwane have announced measures that will resolve the pollution of water sources in the Rooiwal wastewater treatment works (WWTW) in Hammanskraal.

They include sourcing funding for repairing and upgrading the Rooiwal WWTW, installing a portable water treatment plant and providing clean water to residents using water tankers.

“DWS and the City have estimated the cost of a full rehabilitation and upgrade of the Rooiwal WWTW to be in the region of R4 billion,” the Department of Water and Sanitation Director-General, Dr Sean Phillips, said on Thursday in Pretoria.

Phillips said DWS, the City and National Treasury are working together with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to develop a financing plan, which identifies the optimal financial structuring for the project.

He was addressing a media briefing by the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Senzo Mchunu, which provided an update on the latest intervention measures undertaken by the department and the City of Tshwane to deal with the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal.

Recently the Hammanskraal community, located in the north of Tshwane, was devastated when an outbreak of cholera occurred in the area, leading to loss of life and some residents being hospitalised.

So far, there have been 173 reported cases of cholera and 25 people have lost their lives (23 from Hammanskraal; one from Parys in Ngwathe Municipality in the Free State, and one from Phake Thabeng in Mpumalanga).

The project to upgrade the Rooiwal WWTW will be implemented in stages, with an emphasis on work to stop or reduce the pollution from Rooiwal in the early stages.

“To date, the original source of the cholera infection has not been located. However, it is possible that the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal is related to the pollution of water sources in the area from the City’s Rooiwal WWTW, situated upstream of Hammanskraal, which has not been well-maintained for many years, and which has insufficient capacity to deal with the volume of waste water entering the works,” Phillips said.

The Mayor of Tshwane, Cilliers Brink, indicated that the City does not have the capacity on its own to address the sanitation challenges, and it does not have sufficient funds to address the challenges timeously on its own.

“In light of the cholera outbreak, it is imperative that the department and the City form a partnership to repair and upgrade the Rooiwal WWTW,” Brink said.

Mchunu and Brink have agreed that DWS and the City will collaborate to manage a project to fix the infrastructure problems in Hammanskraal.

Tshwane will contribute a portion of its Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG) allocations (Wednesday’s Council approved the allocation of R450 million over the next three municipal financial years).

The DBSA will be appointed as an independent implementing agent to manage the design and construction work.

Lastly, DWS and the City will form a joint steering committee to oversee the project.

Implementation plan

DWS, the City and National Treasury are considering options that include sourcing funds from other grants and a DBSA loan, including bridging finance, among others.

In the meantime, the project will start using the allocation from Tshwane’s USDG grant (possibly supplemented by a DBSA loan or bridging finance).

“The process of appointing the DBSA as implementing agent has been initiated, as well as the development of detailed technical plans for the repairs and upgrades, including scoping the project stages and tender specifications for the first stage,” he said.

Between August this year and March 2024, an improved wastewater technology solution will be installed at the Rooiwal plant that will treat the sewage better and increase the quality of discharged effluent into Apies River.

This will reduce the levels of E. coli from the treated sewage water that is released into the Apies River.

“…In order to improve drinking water provision to the residents of Hammanskraal, Magalies Water will install a portable water treatment plant (called a ‘package plant’) at its Klipdrift water treatment works near Hammanskraal.

“This will produce 30-40 Ml/day of treated drinking water which will be fed into the Hammanskraal piped water distribution system. There is an existing connection between the Klipdrift water treatment works and the piped water distribution system in Hammanskraal,” Phillips said.

The package plant will be implemented in a phased approach, with 10Ml/day at a time.

“Magalies Water will start installing the plant from July 2023 and it will be completed by March 2024. By the time it is completed, it will provide sufficient drinking water to supply the residents of Hammanskraal with drinking water from their taps.

“When the package plant is completed, the City will be able to stop supplying residents with water from the Temba water treatment works, and rather supply them with water from the package plant, until the quality of water from Temba meets drinkable standards again.

“The supply of drinking water from the Magalies water package plant will also enable the City to stop supplying water using water tankers. In the meantime, the City will continue to provide the residents with drinking water through water tanker services at designated water filling points,” Phillips said.

This will be accompanied with regular testing of the water that is being provided by the tankers.

The City will be engaging with community structures to assist it to monitor that the water tankers are drawing water from the correct sources and the testing is done regularly.

Repair and upgrade of Rooiwal

The repair and upgrading of the Rooiwal WWTW will be done in three phases.

The first phase will be to complete the repair project started by the City, which is currently standing at 68% completion.

“The result of this repair work will be improved quality of effluent from the works. This phase is planned to start in September 2023 and end in November 2024. The second phase will involve the upgrading of the plant’s treatment capacity by 50Ml of waste water per day, coupled with desilting of sludge at the Leeukraal dam.

“The desilting of the dam will enable the Temba water treatment works (WTW) to function better and produce drinking water which meets minimum standards. This phase is planned to start in October 2024 and end in June 2025,” he said.

The third phase will involve adding a further 80Ml/day of capacity to the plant. The current capacity of the plant is 250ML/day.

“After Phase 2 and Phase 3, it will improve to a capacity of 380ML/day. This will be sufficient to treat the current and future projected waste water load in Hammanskraal. The third phase is planned to start in July 2024 and end in June 2026,” Phillips said. –SAnews.gov.za

Source: South African Government News Agency