Cape Town’s R85m project to replace 11.9km sewer pipeline to be completed by June

Cape Town - About 11 900 metres of sewer pipeline replacement is expected to be completed in the City of Cape Town within the next three months to conclude the R85 million project.

The City’s Mayco member for water and sanitation Zahid Badroodien states the sewer replacement programme is “on track” to meet its target of replacing 26 000m of sewer pipelines by June 2022.

“Pipe replacements are necessary for various reasons mostly due to ageing infrastructure and densification due to population growth,” the head of the Mother City’s sanitation department said on Thursday.

By February 2022, 14 100m of sewer pipes had already been replaced.

Suburbs such as Goodwood, Glencairn, Muizenberg, Kraaifontein and Philippi have already had their pipelines replaced. Kalkfontein, Wallacedene, Kraaifontein, Gugulethu, Joe Slovo, Khayelitsha Site C, Delft, Milnerton, Cape Flats, Atlantis, Makhaza, Bellville and Kuyasa replacements are either currently under way or are planned to be done within the next three months.

“The City considers various factors when identifying and prioritising pipes for replacement. These factors include doing a comprehensive condition assessment, the Sewer Master Plan, which identifies possible capacity upgrades, structural failures reported/logged by the public and depots as well as Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping,” the water and sanitation directorate said.

“GIS is a database that captures the City’s existing services information and includes pipe sizes, locations, manholes and house connections.”

Badroodien believes 75% of overflows would not occur if residents only sewer correctly – by only flushing human waste and toilet paper down the drains and not fats and oils down sinks.

He urges the public to educate themselves on sewer overflow prevention because “at the end of the day it is residents who pay for the work to remove sewer blockages, and this money could be used for other purposes in the community”.

Badroodien took to social media to illustrate how manhole covers are being stolen and holes subsequently used as dumping sites.

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Over 2293 manhole covers which were replaced costed R1.9 million, amounting to an average of 300 manhole cover replacements per month.

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