This week government plans launch the first phase of the project to deliver clean tap water to Hammanskraal residents, this according to the Minister in the Presidency. Set to be completed by June next year, the Klipdrift modular water treatment plant will be a remarkable story of government success, the end of years of failure and finger-pointing over unpotable water, and a chance for the City of Tshwane to phase out water tankers. But then the risks to the project, including political instability and vested interests, must be carefully understood and managed.
As far back as 2004 the water master plan of the City of Tshwane recommended the upgrade of the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant. This is the facility where most of the city’s waste water is treated and released back into the Apies River. Year after year, administration after administration, the upgrade was delayed. And so it grew in scope and cost. The neglect of existing infrastructure in favour of new projects was a theme of the first decade of the 2000s. Too often the refurbishment of old waste water treatment plants only makes for compelling politics once they have already broken down.
As a result Rooiwal continued to deteriorate to a point of overload, causing the pollution of the Apies River. Downstream the Temba water purification plant could no longer purify water abstracted from the Apies to a potable standard. That’s when the City of Tshwane and most Hammanskraal residents became dependent on water tankers. In 2020 the Rooiwal upgrade finally got underway, but shortly after the contractor abandoned site. A forensic investigation later found that the tender was rigged, and implicated several senior city officials, including the head of supply chain management.
And so, Rooiwal became another story of failure and finger pointing. Between the City of Tshwane and the department of water and sanitation. And between the ANC and DA-led coalitions who have governed Tshwane in the intervening years. But there might still be a good ending to this story. After an initial delay, the Minister in the Presidency on Wednesday announced that the Klipdrift package plant will be launched on Friday, 15 November. While the announcement has come from national government, it is critical that the City of Tshwane is ready to deliver its side of the deal.
Magalies Water has built a modular treatment plant, or so-called ‘package plant’, on the Pienaar River alongside its existing Klipdrift treatment plant. The water utility already supplies parts of Hammanskraal, but the additional capacity of the package plant will allow it to take over Tshwane’s supply area. The project will be rolled out in four phases, and as each phase is completed, the city and residents will rid themselves of expensive and often exploitative water tanker contractors.
The Klipdrift package plant is not just unique in its extent. Modular treatment plants have been built before, but never at this scale and speed. Even more remarkable is the way it was conceived across divides of government and politics.
In May last year I met the then minister of water and sanitation Senzo Mchunu at a water and sanitation workshop in Cape Town which had been arranged by National Treasury. I had just been elected as mayor of Tshwane, and made it clear to Mchunu that Tshwane wanted to work with national government to solve the Hammanskraal water crisis. No solution was off the table, including national government taking over Rooiwal, or a public private partnership. The minister immediately obliged. Within weeks a joint task team was established between the city and the department that eventually devised the solution to the Hammanskraal water crisis.
Then cholera broke out in Hammanskraal. It happened days after my first meeting with Mchunu. Thirty one people lost their lives, and the tragedy drew national attention like never before to the plight of Hammanskraal residents. Despite many tests, no causal link between cholera outbreak and the Rooiwal plant was ever established. Patient zero was a police officer from Limpopo who attended the police training academy in Hammanskraal. Large parts of Hammanskraal are also under tribal instead of municipal authority with no formalised reticulation. But that hardly mattered to people who had been told for years not to trust the water in their taps, and who had also grown distrustful of water tankers.
Instead of pushing us apart, the cholera outbreak brought Tshwane and national government closer together, giving extra import and urgency to our partnership. We agreed that Tshwane would spend the maximum amount of its grand funding on the upgrade of Rooiwal, and that the DBSA would be appointed as implementing agent on the project. While the upgrade is currently ahead of schedule, it will still take years to complete. The final phase of the upgrade will in all likelihood require a private partnership, and take years. The Klipdrift package plant will bring relief in the meantime.
Klipdrift doesn’t obviate the need to upgrade Rooiwal. As Hammanskraal keeps growing, so it will need more water. Klipdrift will only buy Tshwane some much needed time. But Klipdrift doesn’t just depend on work done by Magalies Water. The City has to ensure that there is no impediment to the plant coming on line. Before I left office, Tshwane had a detailed plan to this end. My deputy mayor, who is now the mayor, was part of the team that devised the plan. It is essential that in the change of coalition in Tshwane, that this plan not be scuppered.
First, Tshwane has to ensure that it can pay Magalies for the bulk water supply from Klipdirft. That means that, in turn, consumers will have to pay Tshwane for water use that exceeds the generous allocation of free basic supply to indigent households. Meters, which have already been procured, have to be installed. And the debt portion on consumer bills written off, a clean break that will make it easier for households to pay (this time, for potable water).
Second, while assumptions must usually be avoided, we can safely assume that there are powerful interests who would prefer for Tshwane and Hammanskraal to keep paying for water tankers. At present Tshwane spends upward of R60 million a year to pay contractors to cart water from fire hydrants in the Magalies and Rand Water supply areas to Hammanskraal residents. If Klipdrift works, then these tankers will be phased out, realising a saving for the city, but a corresponding loss for water tankers. So, the security of Magalies and Klipdrift infrastructure against sabotage must be a top priority.
Get this right, and the trust between government and the people of Hammanskraal can be restored, with the Klipdrift package plant becoming a model for solving dirty water problems elsewhere in the country. Get it wrong, and the trust deficit will only deepen. Given what has already been achieved, it is essential that the City of Tshwane follows through on its few remaining obligations in terms the partnership with national government.
Cilliers Brink is the DA Caucus Leader & Former Executive Mayor, City of Tshwane
