The Department of Water and Sanitation’s (DWS’s) interventions to mitigate the significant water and sanitation challenges in Emfuleni local municipality are starting to reduce incidents of sewage spillages into the community.

This follows a number of unsuccessful interventions to address the challenge, which led the department to invoke the Water Services Act’s Section 63 in 2021 to deal with the situation.

The strong intergovernmental cooperation between the DWS, the Gauteng provincial government, appointed implementing agent Rand Water and the Emfuleni local municipality is said to be driving the renewed progress.

“There have been a persistent problem of sewage pollution in the Vaal River System and sewage spillages into communities in Emfuleni for a long time. The department has registered significant progress following this intervention,” Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina said in a statement.

The R7.6-billion, seven-year intervention aims to eliminate the sewage spillages and sewer infrastructure challenges through repairing sewer lines, repairing and refurbishing wastewater treatment works (WWTW) and upgrading infrastructure.

The intervention also includes unblocking sewer lines, replacing collapsed sewer pipelines, refurbishing pump stations and existing WWTW, and assisting the municipality with tools of trade, including vehicles, tools and security.

The refurbishment of four pump stations has been completed, and they are now fully functional, while 50 collapsed sewer lines in Emfuleni have been replaced.

Also completed are two major projects to replace and upgrade the main sewer pipeline from the Rothdene pump station to the Meyerton WWTW, and to replace the main sewer pipeline from pump station 8 to pump station 2.

A third project to replace the rising main sewer pipeline from pump station 2 to the Leeukruil WWTW is 90% complete.

Rand Water, appointed by the DWS as the intervention’s implementing agent, has been further assisting the Emfuleni local municipality by training staff and procuring vehicles and equipment to carry out maintenance work.

The refurbishment of two of the three WWTWs, namely Leeukuil and Rietspruit, under the Emfuleni local municipality, is complete, while the third, the Sebokeng WWTW, is about 50% complete.

“This has resulted in an improvement in the quality of the effluent from the WWTW into the Vaal river. However, this improvement is limited by the fact that the WWTWs are overloaded, and the problem will only be fully addressed once the capacity of the WWTW is upgraded,” the DWS explains.

The upgrading of the capacity of the four existing WWTWs, which lack the capacity to handle the increased sewage load, is expected to take three to five years to complete, according to the engineer’s estimate.

The capacity of the Sebokeng WWTW has already increased by 50 Mℓ a day to 150 Mℓ a day, while the designs for a further 50 Mℓ upgrade have been completed.

The designs for the 36 Mℓ-a-day Rietspruit WWTW have been completed to increase the capacity by 50 Mℓ a day. The contractor is currently on site.

Further, the designs to increase the capacity of the Leeukuil WWTW by 15 Mℓ a day, from the current capacity of 36 Mℓ a day, have also been completed, with work expected to start shortly.

Work is also under way to increase the current capacity of the Meyerton WWTW from 10 Mℓ per day to 25 Mℓ/day.

The process of establishing a special- purpose vehicle (SPV) to serve as the water service provider in the municipality is also under way, with the department, the Emfuleni local municipality and Rand Water currently engaging the National Treasury to obtain the requisite PFMA and MFMA approvals for its establishment.

The SPV will result in a professionally managed, dedicated utility with full responsibility and accountability for the provision of water and sanitation services in Emfuleni.

“The department is satisfied that these interventions are delivering the desired results.

“As a result of these interventions, incidents of sewage spillages into the community in Emfuleni have reduced markedly,” the department says.

“We can boldly state, without any fear of contradiction, that, as a result of the Minister’s decisive intervention, incidents of sewage spillages into the community in Emfuleni have been drastically reduced.”