Poor planning is to blame for faulty street lights, overgrown verges, illegal and unsightly signage and an unpleasant smell around the Kingsburgh wastewater treatment works in Longacres Drive.
That’s the response from ward 97 councillor, Andre Beetge.
“It is something that repeats itself annually following the end of the municipality’s financial year end and quite frankly, it just relates to poor planning as everyone is quite aware that contracts come to an end and have to be awarded timely to ensure continuation of expected service delivery – which is, however clearly lacking,” he said.
“Discussions with various departments confirm that contractors submitted tenders as long as three months ago, but are still awaiting the outcome from supply chain management and as such they are only able to assist using their internal resources – this as opposed to external service providers, resulting in prioritisation and subsequent backlogs.”
Following a site meeting at the Longacres Drive wastewater treatment works on 24 July, tenders for sludge removal closed on Friday, 14 August. While waiting for the 2015/16 tender to be awarded and with sludge not being removed, the works have reverted back to onsite treatment using the dry bed method that accounts for the unpleasant smell, especially when the dry beds are re-activated during rain. “Staff are administering a deodorising chemical on a daily basis in an effort to alleviate the smell,” said Cllr Beetge.
“We can confirm that an interim emergency allocation has been approved in terms of Section 36 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) that will accommodate sludge removal for a period of three weeks while the outcome of tenders are awaited. Expected inception is on Wednesday, 26 August.”
Cllr Beetge said with the Kingsburgh works set to expand its current 7,800 cubic metres daily capacity to an eventual 30,000 cubic metres over an extended period, one of several options under consideration could be future onsite treatment, using new and improved methods as opposed to sludge removal.
