The City of Tshwane and the Department of Water and Sanitation have come up with a plan to fix the Rooiwal Waste Treatment plant which is at the centre of the Hammanskraal water crisis.
In 2021, the South African Human Rights Commission ordered among others that the two spheres of government come up with an implementation plan to fix the Rooiwal Waste Treatment Plant (RWTP) in a published study – Report of the Gauteng Provincial Inquiry into the Sewage Pollution of the City of Tshwane’s Rivers and the Roodeplaat Dam
The two spheres of government released their implementation plan on Thursday and in a joint statement said they have reached an agreement to source additional funding to fix the RWTP.
“DWS, the City and National Treasury have agreed that there is a need to secure funding to fix and upgrade the Rooiwal WWTW. They are working together with the DBSA to develop a financing plan which identifies the optimal financial structuring for the project. Options being considered include sourcing funds from other grants and DBSA loan and bridging finance, amongst others,” they said in a statement.
In the implementation plan the two departments said phase one of the project will start in September 2023 and end in November 2024 while phase two is scheduled to commence in October 2024 and end in June 2025.
“The repair and upgrading of the Rooiwal 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,” said the statement.
“The second phase will involve the upgrading of the plant’s treatment capacity by 50 Ml of waste water per day (ML/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.
“The third phase will involve adding a further 80Ml/day of capacity to the plant. The current capacity of the plant is 250 ML/day. After Phase 2 and Phase 3, it will improve to a capacity of 380 ML/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.”
