The Department of Water and Sanitation has handed over two refurbished waste water treatment plants to Emfuleni District Municipality in Gauteng and Metsimaholo Local Municipality in the Free State.
The handing over of the US$3.2 million treatment plants at the weekend was part of the department’s intervention on dysfunctional treatment plants that spilled insufficiently treated effluent into the Vaal River.
The Oranjeville Waste Water Treatment Plant was refurbished at a cost of about R8 million before being handed over to Metsimaholo District Municipality, while Leeuwkwuil Waste Water Treatment Plant was refurbished to the tune of about R36 million and was subsequently handed over to Emfuleni District Municipality in Vanderbijlpark.
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The department said that the intervention started in February this year amid reports of sewage from the two plants spilling into the Vaal River.
“This was part of the department’s effort to stem the tide of pollution of the Vaal River System which feeds the Vaal Dam,” the department said.
The department said more than US$21.7 million has been set aside by the department to upgrade 26 dysfunctional waste water treatment works in parts of Gauteng and the Free State.
This comes amidst fears of raw sewage flowing into the Vaal River posing a serious threat to the environment, as well as social and economic uses of water.
In 2015, the department appointed an engineering and consultancy firm to determine if Refengkgotso Waste Water Treatment Plant in Deneysville contributed to pollution in the Vaal River.
According to the preliminary report released recently, Refengkgotso Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW), which is managed by Metsimaholo Local Municipality, though originally designed to receive 2.0 mega litres of effluent per day, by the end of 2015 it exceeded the capacity by more than 150%.
The plant was overloaded as it received an average daily inflow of about 57 litres per second, which works out to about 5Ml/d.
“A technical analysis done on the infrastructure of the plant showed that the quarry to which the non-compliant insufficiently treated sewage is pumped is small.
“However, the Metsimaholo Municipality undertakes regular maintenance on the facultative pond, two aerobic ponds, bio-filters tanks, humus tanks, maturation channels and sludge dry beds which are in good condition.
“The department is confident that the emergency intervention it launched will in time bear fruit by ensuring that the 26 dysfunctional WWTW identified for repairs/refurbishment will be worth the more than US$21.7 million allocated for this function,” the department said.
