Sewerage snag hits the Vaal
The water company given the task of fixing the ailing sewerage infrastructure in one of Gauteng’s most populated municipalities says it is in the dark about why it was pulled from the R1.3bn project after only a year.
The East Rand Water Care Company, Erwat, which runs 19 waste-water treatment works that serve 3.5-million people, was awarded the contract in June 2019.
“Initially the plan was to unblock the entire network, which had anything from engines to clothes inside the pipes,” said MD Tumelo Gopane. The company started clearing the blocked pipes in December.
By February, when Erwat took over operations completely from South African National Defence Force engineers brought in the year before as a stopgap measure, Gopane claimed Sebokeng Water Care Works and the other two plants were receiving more than 70% of their daily sewerage needs, compared to 20% less a year earlier.
Removing Erwat from the project was “a seriously big red flag”, said professor Mike Muller of Wits University. “The department [of water & sanitation] has very little capacity to understand what needs to be done.”
The embattled Emfuleni municipality, which must now run the project, is also un
The department has very little capacity to understand what needs to be done Professor Mike Muller
Wits University School of Governance
der fire from the central government. Two weeks ago, parliament’s portfolio committee on co-operative governance & traditional affairs lambasted the municipality for its lack of procurement oversight and failed financial controls.
Emfuleni’s troubles were compounded after its bank account was frozen and attached by the court after it failed to pay a Chinese company contracted to install smart meters for water and electricity.
The municipality encompasses Sebokeng, Evaton, Sharpeville and Boipatong townships and comprises one of SA’s key development corridors. Environmental pressure group Save the Vaal had high hopes that Erwat’s arrival would solve the problem of raw sewage that has plagued the Vaal River for nearly 15 years. However, “Erwat seemed to focus on unblocking the pipes but not fixing the treatment plants,” said Save the Vaal chair Maureen Stewart.
Erwat was about to begin work on refurbishing the critical waste-water plants when the province pulled the plug. Pollution in the river is as bad as it’s ever been, said Stewart, with E.coli counts rocketing.
The organisation plans to restart court proceedings to compel the water & sanitation department and local municipalities to fix the problem.
Gopane said Erwat had made good progress with unblocking pipes and cleaned 44 pump stations and three critical wastewater plants to see how bad the damage was and draw up detailed refurbishment plans.
In March, however, the Gauteng government ordered work to stop. “Not much explanation was given,” said Gopane.
The only contractors still on site are security companies and about 400 people employed to do community awareness. Gauteng’s water & sanitation department did not respond to requests for comment.