Rand Water shares Emfuleni recovery plan info
Emfuleni’s problems at the wastewater treatment works of Leeuwkuil, Rietspruit and Sebokeng are far from over, according to leading non-government organisations (NGOs) who attended a meeting with Rand Water, the DWS appointed implementing agent for the project on Friday 28 January.
At the meeting Mariette Liefferink of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE) wanted to know how the R1.1bn project proposed by GIBB Consulting Engineers, would be paid, when the current annual funding received from DWS for the wastewater works in Emfuleni, for the past eight years amounted to a mere R100 million annually.
Andrew Barker, an active environmental operator and businessman in the Klip River catchment forum, explained it was as if Rand Water, in Emfuleni, simply had to do a ‘BandAid’ project.
“The current funding is sufficient for patching up a broken system, but little more than that. It is far from an infrastructure upgrade,” he said.
Barker also urged Rand Water to focus on educational campaigns for local users’ of water and sanitation in Emfuleni. “You need a long term water stewardship programme.
A proactive engagement with large water users, local industries and big business, can lead to resolving many infrastructure problems,” he said.
SAVE’s Maureen Stewart explained she foresaw the project, in 2022, would be a repeat of the work done by the SANDF and ERWAT in 2019 and 2020. “They clean the pipes and get the pump stations running.
Then they have to clear out, At present only Module 6 is working at the Sebokeng wastewater works. It can cope with 60 megalitres a day, while the actual daily inflow is at least 140 megalitres,” she said.
Civil society stakeholders, focusing on the environment, were of the view Rand Water was essentially working according to the instructions given by DWS minister Senzo Mchunu, at the end of 2021.
They appreciate the work the regional water provider has been doing in the Vaal Barrage for many years. However, it needed a far greater input on the side of government to resolve Emfuleni’s crisis.
A positive snippet of advice, shared by Liefferink at the meeting, was that the South African Human Rights Commission’s 2019 Emfuleni report, recommended that a national state of disaster be declared in Emfuleni.
“By doing so the national government will be in a position to make available considerably more funds,” she said.
Earlier in the week Rand Water also engaged with Emfuleni’s business sector, but Friday’s NGO participants, were of the view Rand Water had have more extensive talks, to clearly hear the voice of distinct groupings whose views are important on the way forward.
