The City of Cape Town is on track to complete the full 28 km of pipeline rehabilitation, under the R715-million Cape Flats Bulk Sewer upgrade, by 2025.

The rehabilitation will benefit 300 000 households primarily across Athlone, Hanover Park, Lotus River, Ottery, Grassy Park, Eagle Park and areas around Pelican Park, besides others.

The project, into which the City of Cape Town will inject R206-million in 2023/24, will result in the upgrade of bulk sewers first constructed in the 1960s, and future-proof these for the next 100 years.

It is said to be the largest sewer bulk upgrade undertaken in democratic South Africa, according to Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis.

Leveraging innovative trenchless technology, the city is ensuring that there are no lengthy and disruptive excavations while work is underway, in a method that is about three times more cost-effective than conventional excavation construction work.

“Pipelines – which are four metres underground – are first profiled by a robotic crawler using lasers to record the state of the inside of the pipe. Data is sent to officials above ground who are able to determine exactly which method to use to fix the pipeline in the most cost-effective way,” explained Water and Sanitation MMC Councillor Zahid Badroodien.

There are three overarching methods of trenchless technology, namely, cured-in-place pipe lining; calcium aluminate cement and spirally wound liner, each of which will be considered when deciding on the best rehabilitative solution for different sections of the pipeline.

“When we talk of our long-term vision of building a city of hope for all, it really comes down to bread and butter projects like this, which bring about better living conditions for residents,” said Hill-Lewis.

Over the next three years, the city will invest R1.3-billion in major bulk sewer upgrades to the Cape Flats, Philippi, Milnerton and Gordon’s Bay lines.

“For the new financial year, about 73% of Cape Town’s infrastructure budget, or just over R8-billion, will go towards critical upgrades benefitting lower-income households, informal settlements and poorer communities in our city.

“Besides the improvements to basic services, and personal and community dignity, the scale of Cape Town’s R43-billion three-year infrastructure pipeline – bigger than Johannesburg and Durban combined – will create an estimated 135 000 jobs in the city over three years,” Hill-Lewis continued.

Across the metropolitan, the city is on track to exceed its target of doubling sewer pipe replacement to 50 km for the 2022/23 financial year ending June 2023.

This is part of a major sewer pipe focus which will see 100 km being replaced every year across the metropolitan for a total investment of R850-million over the next three years.

Pipe replacement is part of a strategy to bring down sewer spills over time, including major bulk sewer upgrades, proactive cleaning of sewer lines, resourcing of sewer spill response teams and digital telemetry systems for early warnings on sewer spills.

These interventions have led to a 30% downward trend in reported spills in Cape Town over the last two years based on preliminary data.

The city is now rolling out a reactive incident management system to track progress even more closely by digitising the coordination of sewer spill responsiveness.

For 2022/23, the city is executing 36 pipe replacements, with 22 complete and 14 set to finish before the end of the financial year.