PHUTI MOSOMANE
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s unsolicited advice to the residents of Hammanskraal to ‘boil the water’ before consumption must have come back to bite him when they retorted by asking “with what electricity?”
Ramaphosa was addressing the residents while he was on a walkabout with Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu and Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi following the cholera outbreak that has claimed over 20 lives in the area.
The residents told Ramapohosa that they lost loved ones because they were unable to ‘boil water” given constant and longer hours of load shedding.
In response, he told them that the provision of clean quality water is their right to exercise but both the provincial and local governments have failed them because a R295 million tender to upgrade the Rooiwal Water Treatment Plant was awarded but only 68% of the work was done.
Ramaphosa conceded that alarm bells were sounded by the National water department to sort out the Rooiwal Water Plant.
To date, the water and sanitation department and the City of Tshwane have estimated the cost of a full rehabilitation and upgrade of the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Works (RWTW) to be in the region of R4 billion.
The project will be implemented in stages, with an emphasis on work to stop or reduce the level of pollution in the works. The repair and upgrading of the RWTW will be done in three phases.
The first phase will be to complete the repair project started by the City which is currently standing at 68% completion. The result of the repairs will be to improve the quality of effluent from the works. This phase is planned to start in September 2023 – November 2024.
The city of Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said he explained to President Ramaphosa that fixing Rooiwal is critical to ensuring a healthy supply of water to the residents of Hammanskraal.
Tshwane has allocated R450 million to upgrading Rooiwal over three years.
INSIDE POLITICS
