Cape {town} Etc appealed to the City to please fix the sewerage system. This month alone, residents alerted the City of a sewerage overflow into Diep River around Woodbridge Island, with this particular body of water having a long-standing problem.
The knock-on effects of the unsavoury of these sewerage issues range from the contamination of Rietvlei, Zeekoevlei and Zandvlei to dirty water being spilled onto Cape Town’s pristine beaches.
Also read: Cape Town’s sewage system is broken and spilling onto our beaches
GroundUp said that more action needs to be taken and less finger-pointing as the administration continues to spew the same rhetoric about the system being clogged due to people littering. They suggested that systems need to be put in place to ensure that people adequately dispose of their trash.
Councillor Zahid Badroodien, Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation contacted Cape {town} Etc with a response to outcry. According to him, the City of Cape Town “readily accepts the challenge to fix the sewerage system.”
“Indeed this has been identified as a top priority for newly-elected Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and a key inspiration for why he ran for office,” he says.
Councillor Badroodien believes that the solution to our water pollution challenge involves bringing together the academic community, concerned residents, community organisations, and the City, to share resources and strategies for significant in-land water quality improvement.
“Our commitment is to do even more, together with residents, to clean up Cape Town’s polluted waterways and environment — a complex challenge to be faced with humility and dedication.
“We are not interested in merely managing decline, and firmly believe that the best days for our city’s waterways lie ahead,” the Councillor adds.
In support of Cape Town’s transition to a more water sensitive city, the City is raising the level of ambition by upping targets and expenditure for major infrastructure upgrades and preventative maintenance of the sewer system.
These raised ambitions will be fully apparent in the City’s new budget for 2022/3, on which the public will have an opportunity to comment.
This includes more kilometres of pipe replacement each year, more preventative jetting and clearing of the sewer system, enhanced responsiveness and intelligence on sewer spill incidents, and more budget for critical sewer pump station upgrades.
“Making sewerage infrastructure more resilient against the illegal dumping of foreign objects will be a key focus, including grids to protect pump stations. We are also closely tracking the progress of major bulk sewer upgrades and Wastewater Treatment Works upgrades underway in key parts of the city. It is vital that we navigate procurement red tape and avoid the protracted tender appeals that have caused slippage on the timelines of this major infrastructure,” says Councillor Badroodien.
According to the City, water, sanitation, and waste management, are at the heart of municipal governance, and pre-requisites for economic growth.
The Councillor notes, however, that infrastructure investment needs to occur alongside meaningful behaviour change to achieve the best impact in reducing pollution.
“While we commit to the shortest possible timeframes on infrastructure upgrades, and full transparency on this, we simply must achieve the requisite shift in behaviour.
“It is a fact that 75% of all sewer blockages in our city are linked to misuse of the system, including the dumping of oils, fats, rags, building rubble, and all manner of discarded objects into the system.
“We are committed to playing our part in improving waste management in communities, raising awareness about preventing sewer blockages, enforcing by-laws governing our urban spaces and waterways, and protecting unserviceable land from illegal occupation attempts,” he adds.
Infrastructure investment and improved basic services are said to be the means by which the City plans to contribute to improving the dignity of all Capetonians.
“The City’s administrative structure must reflect our care for better services and dignity, especially for the poorest residents. A key first step in this new administration has been the creation of a standalone directorate for Urban Waste Management under my Mayco colleague, Grant Twigg, alongside a new Future Planning and Resilience Directorate to ensure we meet the future planning demands of a rapidly growing city,” says the Councillor.
The City says that it wants to ensure that residents feel the improved speed, energy and sense of pride in our city that they are constantly looking to build, wherever you live in Cape Town.
“We aim to set the standard for service excellence, professionalism and the ethic of public service, by answering service requests promptly, and ensuring that residents are given the respect of an explanation if their complaints will take some time to resolve.
“Our strategic interventions will prioritise returning our waterbodies to good health by incrementally improving the water quality in critical catchment areas.
“We all want to live in a city that we can be proud of, a city that cares for residents and does more to protect our natural surroundings,” Councillor Badroodien adds.
Councillor Badroodien says that the the City is steadily laying the foundation for immediate and long-term solutions, including the necessary partnerships with residents.
“By working together, we can make progress on improving our environment, and ensuring dignity and economic activity for residents who live around and depend on our waterways,” Councillor Badroodien concludes.
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Picture: Catherine Hofmeyr