Media Room

18 November 2014 - The Emfuleni Local Municipality has noted with regret the factually incorrect allegations that Emfuleni Sewer Reticulation System is one of the pollution threats to the river system through E-coli and other pathogens from raw or poorly treated sewage.

While the Municipality acknowledges that our ageing infrastructure poses a challenge to us in relation to our reticulation system, it is not true that pipe bursts are not noticed or attended to.

Our maintenance team ensures that there are regular checks on the system to avoid situations where a large amount of sewage finds its way to the Vaal River.
The Municipality has also noted with concern the incorrect representation of facts that we do not have our own maintenance staff at our Waste Water Care Works (WWCW).
It must be put on record that all our Waste Water Care Works, Leeuwkuil, Rietspruit and Sebokeng, operate 24 Hours throughout the year as part of our commitment to ensure that the waste water is treated to acceptable standards. We also want to emphasize that there are maintenance teams on standby for each WWCW which operate in three shift systems.

Both Leeuwkuil and Rietspruit Works have an electrician, a fitter, two fitter assistants, electrical foreman and a mechanical foreman. Each is supported by one Millwright (an electrical/mechanical fitter) provided by Rand Water Bulk Sanitation Department as part of our Service Level & Management Agreement which interested into in September 2009 for 5 years, and was subsequently extended for period of one year ending June 2015. Sebokeng WWCW’s maintenance team comprises of an electrician, two fitters, one fitter assistant, electrical foreman and a mechanical foreman. In addition to that, Rand Water provides 2 Millwrights to complement our maintenance team. So, it cannot be true that our service level agreement with Rand Water does not include maintenance.

With these teams in place, we have managed to achieve, for 2013/2014, the following effluent compliance:

• Leeuwkuil – 97%
• Rietsruit – 85%
• Sebokeng – 97%

The Municipality acknowledges that it is faced with some challenges in relation to waste water treatment especially due to new property development in our area. However, we have plans in place to address these challenges.

For instance, in Rietspruit, an environmental impact assessment has been conducted to construct a 36 megalitres per day emergency dam, an additional clarfier, a chlorine contact tank and a new final effluent discharge point. We are awaiting the approval of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant application that was submitted for this project.
Sebokeng WWCW is currently in the process of been upgraded by two additional modules of 50 megalitres per day each. This project is funded by the department of Water and Sanitation and Rand Water is the implementing agent. Construction started in 2013 and is expected to be completed in 2016.

We hope that with all these upgrades, the Emfuleni Sewer Reticulation System will improve and be able to handle the strain that our plants are experiencing as a result of new property development and other factors.

Issued by the Communication Unit

nquiries: Klaas Mofomme
Spokesperson: Emfuleni Local Municipality
Contact: 016 – 950 6454 / 082 610 5718
E-mail: klaasm@emfuleni.gov.za