Cape Town - The City of Cape Town’s water and sanitation directorate’s infrastructure maintenance and upgrade programme is steadily gaining momentum.
Over the past few months, the department has been working to upgrade and restore its water and sanitation system across the city.
In its latest update, water and sanitation Mayco member Zahid Badroodien said the directorate had successfully replaced 16 497m of water and sewer pipes over the past month.
According to Badroodien, in August the department saw major work completed to rehabilitate the City’s water and sewer pipe infrastructure. In total, for the month, 9 545m of water pipes and 6 952m of sewer pipes were replaced. This is double the amount of both water and sewer pipe replacement for July.
“The upgrading of our sewer and water systems forms part of our proactive infrastructure maintenance and upgrade programme to ensure the future continuity of water supply and conveyance of sewage via the different reticulation systems.”
Badroodien also revealed that part of the City’s focus on upgrading its sewer and water system is to reduce sewer spills and address the issue of unaccounted-for water.
To date, the Water and Sanitation officials have completed work in Melkbos, Atlantis, Table View, Athlone, and Bellville. In Bellville, City officials replaced 3 949m of water pipes, and in Athlone they replaced 1 136m sewer pipes.
“Cape Town is massively raising its investment in critical basic services infrastructure to lay the foundation for economic growth. While long-term infrastructure planning has always been in place, the City’s R120bn 10-year infrastructure portfolio represents a refined pipeline of planned projects and raised ambitions for investment.
“The City regrets any inconvenience caused when this work takes place in various areas over the coming months. It is, however, necessary to better cater to the residents’ water and sanitation needs,” Badroodien said.
Badroodien said the City spent R443.4 million in the previous financial year to rehabilitate its water and sewer system.
Meanwhile, for the current financial year, the City has budgeted a total of R863.6m to invest in water and sewer pipe replacements across Cape Town.