Devastated by theft and vandalism, Nelson Mandela Bay’s biggest sewage treatment plant is operating at a fraction of its capacity.
A private security team is in place at the Fishwater Flats Waste Water Treatment Works, and the municipality is working to fix and replace the damaged infrastructure and severed electricity lines.
The mayhem left by intruders has incapacitated several key sections of the plant, slashing the quality of expelled treated sewage into Algoa Bay.
Signalling the seriousness of the situation, hardly any recycled water is being produced, and recycled sludge is down from an optimum 40 tonnes a day to zero.
These were some of the facts that emerged during a visit to Fishwater Flats by deputy water and sanitation minister Sello Seitlholo on Monday.
He was met at the plant by municipal water and sanitation senior director Barry Martin, wastewater treatment director Anderson Mancotywa and deputy mayor Babalwa Lobishe.
Seitlholo fired questions at Mancotywa about issues including the stripping of metal and other valuables from Fishwater Flats.
Mancotywa said the criminal onslaught had raged through 2022 and had only been halted once a private security firm was contracted in March 2023.
“This thieving and vandalism resulted in the destruction of our electricity supply, which is vital to power the different sections of the plant as the sewage moves through the system.
“Since we got security in place, we have appointed a contractor to do these repairs and we have been working hard to get everything operating again.
“The current quality of our landward outfall of treated sewage is 61%, while the quality of our seaward outfall is 39%.”
He said the metro had an ample supply of chlorine and that was not the issue.
“The issue is the damage to our infrastructure and electrical system, which we need to fix.”
The deputy minister said he did not know a lot about the marine environment receiving this poorly treated sewage, and had not seen the famous penguins of Algoa Bay.
“I can imagine DFFE [department of forestry, fisheries and environment] will have issues.
“So let’s not pollute. I want to read much-improved figures in the next Green Drop Report [the government analysis of the sanitation system].”
Martin said the aim was to raise the quality level to at least 75%, before pushing for the standard water and sanitation optimum of 90%.
He said once Fishwater Flats’ core job of sewage treatment had been corrected, it would also be able to start producing recycled material again.
“This plant was designed to treat 132 megalitres of sewage a day and we are now treating 87 megalitres, so we can spare, but right now the system is constipated.
“The aim is to produce five megalitres of recycled water a day. We will use that volume ourselves and supply the rest to various companies including at Coega once its pipeline is laid.
“We should also be able to produce 40 tonnes of recycled sludge.
“The main taker there will be the brickworks that use it as a methane fuel to fire their clay bricks and then the dry remainder as filler in the bricks.”
Lobishe said she would propose a timeline for the completion of the repair work at the plant that, after discussion between the different role players, would be adhered to.
HeraldLIVE
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