The South African Human Right Commission (SAHRC) says it will put pressure on the City of Tshwane to implement recommendations it made on the provision of water to the community of Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, in the wake of the cholera outbreak.
Harriete Buga, SAHRC Gauteng legal officer, was speaking on Thursday following a visit to the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant.
Two years ago, the commission released a damning report revealing that the pollution of water resources in Hammanskraal was as a result of failure by the city to maintain wastewater treatment works. It found the city had failed to fulfill its constitutional objectives.
The commission said the metro had failed to manage the situation over a prolonged period that had resulted in a regression in the quality of water provided to residents.
One of the key recommendations calling for the national government to take over the running of the city of Tshwane’s water and sanitation due to poor management is yet to be implemented.
“The action plan is putting pressure point on the city to say that there are recommendations that have been issued by the human rights commission and so what are you going to do about it. When we take you to court, what are you going to do as a municipality to ensure that the residents of Hammanskraal and surrounding areas are going to trust you enough to say that this historical challenge that has been long going has to be dealt with,” said Buga.
She said the commission’s officials observed that certain parts of the the plant were working.
“I think that there has to be a continuous maintenance, not everything is in place so the affluent will continuously be flowing ... then straight to Temba water plant. If nothing is done on this side, if the sludge under affluent is not cleaned properly then the water that is flowing out of this plant will still be contaminated and taken to the Temba purification plant, which might not be able to clean it properly and this will impact the surrounding areas.
“The water going into the Apies River still has impurities. When there’s full clockwise maintenance of the affluent here, it does impact the quality of water in Hammanskraal. It is still not safe to drink [tap] water,” Buga said.
Earlier on Thursday, the city said it had approved a R450m budget for the upgrades at Rooiwal.
The upgrade will improve the quality of water provided to the cholera-hit Hammanskraal to acceptable standards.
Mayor Cilliers Brink said the money, which would stretch over the next three financial years, was still not enough to upgrade Rooiwal, and external funding was still needed.
He said the city was in partnership with the Development Bank of Southern Africa to assist with the upgrades.
He said, currently thousands of households in the city relied on water tankers, which were costly.
“The problem that we have with the quality of Hammanskraal water is that the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant has reached its capacity and we don’t have the money or the expertise to fix it quickly enough.
“It is a problem that has come for almost two decades and with every year the population of Hammanskraal grows. With every year the infrastructure deteriorates, but importantly, there was also mismanagement at Rooiwal which has to be faced,” Brink said.
He said there had been various instances of tender irregularities “which has also had the effect of making what now needs to be done more complicated and more expensive”.
The tender to upgrade Rooiwal was awarded to corruption accused, ANC benefactor Edwin Sodi, whose consortium did half the work and was allegedly paid R292m, the full value of the contract.
Five Tshwane metro employees are undergoing disciplinary hearings for their role in the irregular awarding of the tender in 2019.
The employees, who sat on the bid evaluation committee, all scored Sodi’s consortium 80 points for the tender, despite the company not fitting the grade, placing it above other bidders.
Department of water and sanitation director-general Dr Sean Phillips has announced that Magalies Water will install a potable water treatment plant at its Klipdrift water treatment plant near Hammanskraal.
newsdesk@sowetan.co.za
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