Members of the community and various stakeholders gathered until late on Monday evening for the third quarterly Milnerton Lagoon stakeholders’ meeting, where they were updated on the City’s multibillion-rand Milnerton Lagoon rehabilitation plans.
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The meeting was chaired by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis together with representatives from various departments and saw the City promising improvements in the Potsdam effluent quality within a few weeks, a significant improvement by the end of June, and ongoing pond cleaning and refurbishment.
These will be done in an effort to address the ecology of the waterbodies, as well as reed bed pond valves being installed.
Deputy chairperson for the mayoral advisory committee on water quality in wetlands and waterways, Alex Landsdowne, said that the City was expecting the full council meeting at the end of March to approve the R5 billion Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works (PWWTW) upgrades. “This is the beginning of the pathway out of the stink,” he said.
The Potsdam development was delayed for more than a decade as a result of appeals by bidders, which were recently dismissed.
“The anticipated contract signing for the design-build of mechanical and electrical works for the upgrade and expansion and the civil, building and demolition works for the upgrade and expansion will both take place in mid-April 2023,” said DA constituency head for Blaauwberg-Durbanville 2, Cayla Murray.
“The anticipated construction for both contracts is set to start in May 2023. The anticipated start of the trial operation period is November 2026 and the anticipated completion of the contracts is November 2027.”
The mayor added that the City was happy to take the most robust criticism from residents, especially on the matter of the Milnerton Lagoon’s degradation.
“There is no other community in the whole city that has quarterly update meetings on the problems they face,” said Hill-Lewis. “The City takes this problem seriously and has presented a detailed multibillion-rand project timeline to address the problem.”
“That timeline of course has been subject to some delays already and I have no doubt that in the course of the next five years, it will be subject to some other unexpected delays. But the project has everything it needs to succeed, there is not a single stone we have left unturned.”
Meanwhile, Caroline Marx, director of Rethink The Stink and environmental head of the Milnerton Central Residents Association, welcomed the mayor’s commitment to providing whatever was required to restore the Milnerton Lagoon but added that the slow progress had been disappointing.
“The City wishes to push the completion dates for Potsdam for another two years, after an extension was already permitted. From a community perspective, this causes us to lose complete faith in what is promised to us.”
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Picture: Supplied / CoCT