‘IT SHOULD BECOME TOP PRIORITY’
Following last week’s story on the critical state of the city’s wastewater management as revealed in the Green Drop Report of the Department of Water and Sanitation, comment could be sourced from the municipality as well as input from a local wastewater expert.
Polokwane Observer reported last week that the state of Polokwane’s wastewater systems has compelled the Regulator in the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to place the city on its enforcement priority list. This was revealed in the recently published Green Drop Report of the department that focuses on wastewater management. “A capital project was implemented at the Polokwane Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTWs), but no information was made available to the regulator - the Green Drop score of 31% and Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) score of 15% does not suggest a positive impact. Municipal leadership must take note of this status and direct urgent attention to address this situation,” the report reflected.
The regulator further found that the municipality has in-house maintenance supplemented by four maintenance contracts. “This management strategy does not translate to preventative maintenance, resulting in frequent equipment failures for extended periods of time. This is particularly evident at the Polokwane treatment works where only half of the installed capacity is available to treat the wastewater entering the plant,” the report reflected.
A local specialist on waste water management, who wishes to remain anonymous, commented that the current situation with the city’s wastewater management and the damning report on the local authority’s Green Drop status could be
With the help of professional engineers and planning, the problem can be overcome.
attributed to three factors.
“Firstly, there is a total disregard of the importance of the management of wastewater. It seems that no priority is given to the treatment of wastewater.
“Secondly, there is an obvious lack of knowledge and skills to effectively manage, maintain and operate the existing infrastructure and finally, there is an apparent lack of planning and budget to make the money available required for the upkeep and maintenance,” he reckoned.
“I am of the opinion that with the help of professional engineers with the proper experience and knowledge, a proper maintenance programme as well as decent and effective operating procedures can quickly be developed to rectify the current state of affairs.”
This will require a dedicated commitment from the management of the municipality to ensure the plans and procedures are given the priority it deserves and maintained, the expert said.
According to the source, the money should be made available to refurbish the existing WWTWs as rate payers do pay their contributions and should be allocated accordingly.
“A long-term development and upgrading planning should be done to ensure the sustainability of our WWTWs in terms of training and skills transfer and I am sure that similar plans have been compiled in the past but it has not been understood or prioritised,” he advised and concluded that he believes that maintenance has totally been disregarded by the municipality as is applicable to all municipal services across the country.
The spokesperson for the municipality, Matshidiso Mothapo said they have taken note of the regulator’s report and is equally concerned and putting in place short-term and medium-term measures to deal with the situation. “A comprehensive turnaround strategy is being prepared for the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation with recommendations from the regulator,” Mothapo confirmed. “The population has been growing annually at an average of 4.9%. The recently completed Water Masterplan and the studies that were undertaken during the planning of the proposed New Polokwane Regional Wastewater Treatment Works, indicated a rise in population growth that leaves all the current infrastructure been overloaded and in Mankweng Township and SDA1 there is a challenge of student villages and backrooms that were not included in the initial design resulting in sewer overflows,” Mothapo explained. The municipality is in the process of filling vacant positions to address the skills shortage for the successful operation of the plant. The positions include manager of purification, assistant manager of purification, plant supervisors, process controllers and lab technicians. This will ensure implementation of the corrective measures carried out by sound technical officials. Internal skills and contracted services will be utilised to address all the maintenance works in the Head of Works, mechanical screens, degritters and chlorination equipment to improve on the quality of effluent discharge, according to the municipality. “For the medium term, the municipality has in 2018 appointed Aurecon/ Zutari to conduct an assessment at the main Polokwane WWTWs for the purpose of refurbishment and minor upgrades. In 2019 Phase 1 of the refurbishment was concluded with the installation of the brush aerators to increase the efficiency of the oxidation in the main oxidation ditch. Planning for Phase 2 of the upgrading of Main Polokwane Works has been completed and is awaiting funding for implementation,” Mothapo said. For the long term, the municipality has in 2017 started with a programme to implement the Polokwane Regional Wastewater Treatment Works to address the current and future effluent discharge – The initial phase will be the construction of the first 20 Ml/ day module and ultimately get to 100 Ml/ day in future, according to Mothapo. “In terms of Phase 1 (Construction of the RWW Outfall Sewer Bulk Pipelines), two of the three projects have been completed and the remaining one is at 78%, in Phase 2 A (Construction of Earthworks for Polokwane RWWTW), the projects have been completed and regarding Phase 2 B (Construction of Polokwane RWWTW – Civil, Mechanical and Electrical), the project has been completed,” the spokesperson concluded.