Cape Town’s sewers upgrade, SA’s largest, gets under way and is set to be complete by 2025
Cape Town - South Africa’s largest sewer upgrade project, which will benefit 300 000 households primarily in lower-income neighbourhoods in the metro, is under way in Cape Town and should be completed in two years’ time.
The R715 million Cape Flats Bulk Sewer upgrade by the City is using innovative trenchless technology, which is meant to ensure there are no lengthy and disruptive excavations while work is under way.
The project is expected to upgrade and future-proof the bulk sewers, first built in the early 1960s, for the next 100 years.
Inspecting the progress of the work which began just over a year ago, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the City was on track to complete the full 28km of pipeline rehabilitation by 2025.
He said: “Besides the improvements to basic services, and personal and community dignity, the scale of Cape Town’s R43 billion three-year infrastructure pipeline, which is bigger than Joburg and Durban combined, will create an estimated 135 000 jobs over three years.”
He said the City would be spending R206m on the upgrade in the 2023/24 financial year.
Suburbs benefiting from the sewer upgrades include Athlone, Hanover Park, Lotus River, Ottery, Grassy Park, Eagle Park, and areas around Pelican Park.
“Over the next three years, the City will invest R1.3bn in major bulk sewer upgrades to the Cape Flats, Philippi, Milnerton and Gordon’s Bay lines.
“For the new financial year, roughly 73% of Cape Town’s infrastructure budget, or just over R8bn, will go towards critical upgrades benefiting lower-income households, informal settlements, and poorer communities in our city.
“It’s a huge upgrade and it’s about R715m over the next few years. What’s really exciting is, first, it’s the biggest upgrade project in the whole of South Africa. Second, it’s being done robotically.”
Hill-Lewis was speaking after he had just witnessed the work being done to lay the new pipe using the innovative imported German technology.
The civil engineering is being undertaken by Mainline Civil Engineering, whose contract manager, Kumeshim Sinayan, said over the next five months they would be working on rehabilitating 4.7km of sewers.
Sinayan said they had been working on the project in segments since 2021
“The 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 engineers above ground and they are then able to determine exactly which method to use to fix the pipeline in the most cost-effective way.”
City project manager Vuyo James said: “The objective for the rehabilitation of the sewers is aimed at protecting the internal surface of the concrete pipes, preventing further deterioration caused by the hydrogen sulfide gas found in the sewage.
“The work we are doing will restore structural integrity and prevent groundwater infiltration as well as the exfiltration of sewage.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za