End to Hammanskraal water woes expected in September
Tshwane mayor and the Minister of Water and Sanitation gave an update on the scope of the upgrade work at the Rooiwaal wastewater treatment plant that supplies water to the area.
Households supplied water by the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant in Hammanskraal will be able to get consistent, reliable and clean water in their homes by September.
This is according to the Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink and Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu who visited the plant north of Pretoria as part of their oversight function on Wednesday, April 10.
The controversial plant and Klipdrift water treatment works (also in Hammanskraal) are undergoing refurbishment and upgrades.
Mchunu said his department was committed to provision of equitable and excellent quality water supply to the area.
He said after the upgrades Klipdrift’s processing capacity would rise from 42 mega litres a day to 92.
“The upgrade is set to improve the provision and quality of water in parts of Hammanskraal that are adversely affected by insufficient service,” said Mchunu.
He said most households in the area would receive consistent and reliable water supply to their homes by September and the quality of life “of the more than 47 000 households with a population of 180 679” would improve.
He said the Development Bank of SA (DBSA) has been appointed as the implementing agent to complete the refurbishment of Rooiwal in two phases.
He said phase 1A was urgent thus “a turnkey approach is undertaken to ensure that the necessary works are carried out swiftly and efficiently”.
He said phase 1B allowed for a conventional approach and would entail the construction of two primary sedimentation tanks, an upgrade to the east tank and pump station, as well as anaerobic digesters at Rooiwal.
Brink said upgrading Rooiwal is for the long term.
“We saw the progress being made by the DBSA. The site is being secured and the fence is being built.
The sedimentation tank is being emptied.
We are not saying we have arrived at what we want because we have to monitor this very closely,” he said, adding that some risks, security being a major one, would arise.
“We want to avoid some of the mistakes made in the past that compromised contractors.”
Mchunu told the residents that the two projects would bring socio-economic benefits to their area.
“We always strive to ensure that projects undertaken by government benefit the local communities.
The upgrading of the treatment works will create up to 70 jobs for the duration of the project,” he said.
ALSO READ: Source of the cholera outbreak not linked to Rooiwal, says metro
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
