HOW IT WORKS: Ndlambe Municipality’s water treatment manager Kudakashwe Sanyamandwe explains the workings of the R14m water filtration plant in Nemato’s Solomon Mahlangu Rd during a DA oversight visit to the site on Tuesday. Picture: MARK CARRELS
A sophisticated water treatment plant that will add 2.4 megalitres to Port Alfred’s stressed water supply will be fully operational by the end of February. Councillors and media had a first-hand look at the town’s new water and waste water infrastructure, and a status update during an oversight visit by MPL Retief Odendaal.
Odendaal, DA EC Spokesperson for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) was accompanied by Ndlambe Municipality’s DA caucus. The group visited two sites on Tuesday January 28: the R16-million sewage pump station in Wharf Street and the R14m water treatment plant in Nemato. On hand to provide expert information were Ndlambe Municipality’s water treatment manager, Kudakwashe Sanyamandwe, LRC Civils project manager Lucio Scoccia, and Johan Muller of Sizwe Amanzi which installed the new water filtration plant.
First, Sanyamandwe took questions at the new sewage pump station.
Sanyamandwe told the group the new structure built by LRC Civils was part of Ndlambe’s sewage treatment master plan and that the newly built Wharf Street structure was a critical part of it.
He said 32% of Port Alfred residents were connected to the main sewer line while the rest were still reliant on septic tanks or conservancy tanks.
“We are slowly but surely wanting to remove smaller pump stations from the system so that everyone is fully integrated with the new network. We have had for too long a fragmented network with a number of sewage pump stations. What we are doing is to eliminate all of that and replace it with a gravity-fed system,” he said.
Citing an example, he said Nemato was fully reticulated in terms of sewerage disposal and some pump stations had already been eliminated there. He said the notorious Wharf Street pump station next to Putt Bridge would also be removed from the system when the main sewage pump station is up and running.
“We need to increase that percentage (32%) so we have more [sewage] flow coming through … we want enough sewage going through our waste water treatment works to be able to feed our waste water reclamation plant,” said Sanyamandwe.
Ward 10 councillor Nadine Haynes reminded the group that the main contractor, LRC Civils, had taken took over the project from a company that had gone in to liquidation.
Sanyamandwe said a sub-contractor was due to be appointed to complete the installation of electrical panels, electricity components and pumps, as LRC was responsible only for the build of the project.
Odendaal was interested to know the duration of the contract, the cost and the output of the treatment works once all the components were installed, and up and running.
“We currently get 1.5ML to 2ML … but we can make it to 5ML. That’s our plan,” said Sanyamandwe. “It is a multi-year project costing R16m and there are seven phases … and we are busy with phase 3. We are 85% done and the scheduled completion date is the end of March.”
Ward 6 councillor Edward Walker questioned the contingency plans for power outages.
“There are three pumps and the backflow gets pumped into a tank which holds 3ML or 4ML and when the power [returns it will flow out,” said Scoccia.
Haynes asked about ongoing maintenance of the pumps. “We have a lot of problems with our pump stations both on the water provision and [wastewater treatment] side,” Haynes said. “Every time the Wharf Street pump station trips, sewage just [spills] into the river.”
Sanyamandwe said there should be a tender in place in the next few months specifically for that. He said the municipality was currently compiling [a service agreement] for the maintenance of the new sewage pump station.
Boost to water supply
Next was a visit to the new R14m water filtration plant in Solomon Mahlangu Road, Nemato.
A Sizwe Amanzi project team installed the water filtration plant. Head of Sizwe Amanzi projects, Johan Muller, is supervising the team managing the plant’s trial run operations.
The sophisticated plant, fully fenced in and built into an enclosed steel shed, is currently being trialled on a limited scale, running from 8am to 4pm daily. It is scheduled to start full operation by the end of February. Port Alfred required 8-9ML of water per day and the current plant would add another 2.4ML to the existing supply, said Sanyamandwe.
Muller said the water filtration plant had a 10-year lifespan but that ongoing maintenance would be crucial.
“The technology is there and it’s proven itself because we have used it in many other locations,” Muller said.
Muller said the official handover to the municipality would take place next week.
However, he said, “We will still be on site and educate other operators and run it concurrently with existing systems. We (Sizwe Amanzi) can’t just walk away once it’s up and running: there is an ‘integrity period’ of two or three months and we have to show there have been no deviations…”
The system can be monitored and operated remotely.
“During my holiday I managed it remotely using my laptop via a HMI (Human Machine Interface),” Muller said. The interface had made it possible for him to check both pressure and flow.
Odendaal gave Ndlambe Municipality the thumbs up for its efforts to have an effective water and sewage treatment operation in place.
Odendaal, who led the oversight visit at the invitation of the DA’s Ndlambe caucus, said the municipality must be given credit for having made great strides since the drought a few years ago. The DA MPL said the visit was important to check up on progress and development around water issues and to see where help, if any, could be rendered through feedback to Cogta.
“I think that Ndlambe is one of the better run municipalities in the Eastern Cape,” Odendaal said. “Yes you also have your challenges. But insofar as what we see with many of the other municipalities that are ailing and failing, you guys are moving in the right direction.”
This article was first published in Talk of the Town, January 30, 2025. The newspaper serving the communities of Ndlambe and the Sunshine Coast, with a weekly wrap of Makhanda news, is available at stores from early on Thursdays.
