‘Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant refurbishment on track’: Tshwane deputy mayor

The City of Tshwane says it is within its reach to ensure Hammanskraal residents have access to clean water by 2025. 

Deputy mayor Nasiphi Moya, who is part of the city's Rooiwal subcommittee, said work to refurbish the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant has made significant strides and it is envisaged phase 1 will be completed by April 2025.

She visited the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant last Friday with other committee members.

The wastewater plant has been the source of poor quality water in Hammanskraal and surrounding areas, forcing the city to rely on tankers to supply drinking water.

“Our visit to Rooiwal also finalised the final steps to ensuring Hammanskraal residents have access to clean water by September 2024. This deadline is within our reach with the completion of the water meter readings project. More than 30,000 household meters were assessed during the programme,” Moya said.

She said the visit offered insights into the progress being made in comparison to a visit on May 9 2024.

Moya said progress has been made in securing the site with security personnel, with the future aim to install camera surveillance.

“Other areas of improvement include equipment management and reinstallation, which have all been dealt with according to plan. Other areas on track with the project plan include the completion of pumping sewage effluent and desludging.”

“This means the removal of scrapper-down pipes and refurbishments will start this month. When we handed the project to the Development Bank of Southern Africa, we envisioned March 2025 as the deadline for general building and mechanical engineering and April 2025 for the phase 1 completion deadline,” she said.

TimesLIVE reported the R4bn project to revamp and expand the Rooiwal treatment plant and address the water problem in Hammanskraal will take three years.

Moya said completing the refurbishments at Rooiwal will ensure improvement in the quality of water discharged from the plant.

“Once the system runs steadily at the plant, we should be able to monitor the safety and quality of the water provided and its chemical distributions,” she said.

Moya said the subcommittee will return to the area at the end of this month for further oversight.

TimesLIVE