Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has approved a seven-fold budget increase to upgrade pump stations and boost protection from load shedding and illegal dumping into the sewer system.
Big capital budget increases for sewer pump stations are planned under the Mayoral Priority Programme for water and sanitation, from R70 million in 2022, ramping up to R400 million in 2024, and R500 million in 2025.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, said that by June 2023, the City would have installed permanent generators at 110 priority sewer pump stations requiring generation capacity, with around 30 more earmarked for installations and all 26 wastewater treatment plants already have permanent generators.
Hill-Lewis said they further installed early warning telemetric alarm systems at all 487 sewer pump stations to help detect faults.
“As part of rapidly scaled-up budgets, over R100 million annually will go to generators and electrical maintenance to protect against load shedding; screens to protect against foreign items in sewers; and security measures to combat ongoing theft and vandalism of critical infrastructure.”
Major upgrades and refurbishments to priority pump stations across the city accounts for the remainder of planned annual budgets, set to exceed R400 million by 2024.
“While we aim to end load shedding over time in Cape Town, we are investing now to protect our critical infrastructure from the impact of sustained blackouts.”
Cape Town’s sewer infrastructure is under pressure from rapid urbanisation, and in need of upgrading.
“One of our first actions in office was to quadruple the City’s proactive sewer pipe replacement target, from 25km to 100km annually. Now thanks to an ongoing city-wide audit of the state of sewer pump stations, we are ready to massively ramp up budgets for upgrades.”
“This includes protection from load shedding, sewer misuse, theft and vandalism,” said Hill-Lewis.
Councillor Siseko Mbandezi, acting Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation, says that the City is stepping up both our pump station upgrade programme and our sewerage spill responsiveness.
“Interventions include more specialised vehicles, hiring additional personnel, and proactive clearing of the sewer system,” Mbandezi said.
The City of Cape Town aims to provide at least four stages of load-shedding protection progressively over the next three years under the Mayoral Priority Programme to end load shedding over time.
Besides resilience investments in pump station infrastructure, the City is improving operations by:
- Expanding operational teams responding to pump station failures and conducting manual switching over to generators.
- Procuring more specialised equipment to enhance sewer spill responsiveness, including mobile pumps and trucks with jetting and vacuum capacity to clear spills.
- Proactively procuring spares annually to shorten repair turnaround times.
- Cutting procurement red tape through a new “framework” tender in 23/24 that will allow for accelerated expenditure.
This is set to be achieved through various means, including:
- Buying power on the open market, with the second phase of its major IPP procurement due to be announced soon.
- Paying businesses and residents to sell power back to the City.
- Incentives for voluntary energy savings under a new Power Heroes programme.
- Municipal generation projects such as Steenbras Hydro power, solar PV, and gas turbines.
IOL