Makana may be on the brink of entering into a public-private partnership to help fund a much-needed R66 million upgrade to the Belmont Valley Waste Water Treatment Works.
Makana may be on the brink of entering into a public-private partnership to help fund a much-needed R66 million upgrade to the Belmont Valley Waste Water Treatment Works.
Documents from a special council meeting held at the end of last month indicate that the Makana Council has provisionally agreed to lease the Belmont Valley Waste Water Treatment Works to Izenzo Consulting and Contracting, as part of the municipality's funding strategy to overhaul Grahamstown's sewerage system.
Izenzo is the project management company that plans to incorporate the Grahamstown Golf Club in a new development in Belmont Valley and build housing on the current Cradock Road golf club site. A report to Council from Makana's infrastructure and technical services directorate indicated that Grahamstown's sewerage infrastructure is literally at bursting point.
According to the report, the current sewerage system's daily flow is 8 million litres a day – far exceeding the Belmont Valley plant's designed capacity of 5.4 million litres a day. The system takes on an even greater average flow of 9.4 million litres a day during times of high rainfall, which could lead to system failure, the report read.
Makana's technical and infrastructure director Thembinkosi Myalato emphasised that the sewerage plant is currently under enormous pressure. "The upgrade would relieve the networks," Myalato said. "You must remember that Grahamstown is now 200 years old, which means its infrastructure is also 200 years old and it needs to be upgraded," Myalato said.
"Our roads and sewage systems also need to be fixed. Grahamstown is growing very fast and waste-water treatment is key to the development and future development of the city. It needs to be sustainable because the current one is going to collapse."
Myalato said this upgrade would relieve the sewerage system's overload, which often led to burst pipes, clogging and overflows. However, he emphasised that a public-private partnership with Izenzo was not the only option being considered for funding the upgrade.
Also under consideration were involving the Department of Water and Forestry, and getting a loan from the Development Bank.
Details of the proposed public-private partnership with Izenzo were not yet available at the time of going to press.
Izenzo's report also said that new developments, including Mayfield, additions to St Andrew's College and the new Grahamstown Golf Course, would add two million litres a day, further stressing the system.
