A tanker delivers water to residents in Chris Hani section in Hammanskraal. The City of Tshwane and the department of water and sanitation have announced a plan to fund a R4bn project to improve the quality of water supplied to the area.
Image: Thapelo Morebudi
Residents of Hammanskraal will have potable water from their taps by March next year in a three-year project to improve water supply in the area.
Water and sanitation minister Senzo Mchunu briefed media on Thursday on the latest interventions by the department and the City of Tshwane to deal with the cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal.
The city and the department agreed to jointly fund the project to upgrade and fix the water supply system in Hammanskraal.
Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said he approached Mchunu because the Rooiwal waste water treatment works, which supplies water to Hammanskraal, had reached capacity and the city did not have the money or expertise to fix it quickly. Brink said the city will contribute R450m to the about R4bn budget.
Water and sanitation director-general Dr Sean Phillips said the Rooiwal plant is polluting the Apies River which flows into the Leeukraal Dam, from which water is extracted by the city's Temba water treatment works.
“That water treatment works is supposed to treat the raw water extracted from the dam so that it is fit for human consumption, but the pollution from the Rooiwal waste water treatment works is so heavy and has been going on for so long that the water and the dam is now so polluted the Temba water treatment works is not able to treat the water so it meets the required standards for drinking water,” Phillips said.
The project will be implemented in stages to stop or reduce pollution into the Apies from Rooiwal in the early stages.
Phillips said the R450m allocation from Tshwane will possibly be supplemented by a Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) loan for bridging finance.
“We have started the process of appointing the DBSA as implementing agent for the project.
The project will have short-, medium- and long-term interventions.
The short-term intervention will be to install improved wastewater technology in Rooiwal to improve the way in which the plant treats sewage and increase the quality of discharged effluent into the Apies.
“This will reduce levels of E coli from treated sewage water released into the Apies River,” Phillips said. The project is expected to start in August and end in March next year.
The second phase will deal with improving water provision for Hammanskraal residents.
Phillips said Magalies Water will install a potable water treatment plant at Klipdrift waste water treatment works near Hammanskraal. This would produce 30 to 40 megalitres of treated drinking water which will be fed into the Hammanskraal piped water distribution system.
“There is already an existing system between the Klipdrift wastewater treatment works and the distribution system in Hammanskraal.”
Magalies Water plans to start installing this plant from July to March 2024. When this was complete, it would provide sufficient drinking water to the residents of Hammanskraal from their taps.
“When the package plant is complete, the city will be in a position to stop supplying residents from the Temba water treatment works and supply them from the package plant until quality water from the Temba works meets drinkable standards again.” The city would then stop supplying water via water tankers.
The repair and upgrade of Rooiwal will be in three phases, starting in September and ending in June 2026.
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