The Star Late Edition

Rooiwal Phase 1 project is on track for completion in 2025

WORK to refurbish the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant has made significan­t strides and it is expected to be finished by April 2025.

This was said by City of Tshwane deputy mayor Nasiphi Moya, who was part of the municipal Rooiwal subcommitt­ee members who visited the plant.

She said the subcommitt­ee was encouraged by the steady progress made by officials to ensure that Phase 1 of the refurbishm­ent of Rooiwal was completed by April next year.

“The visit offered incredible insights into the tremendous progress being made in comparison to a previous visit conducted on May 9, 2024,” she said.

According to her, there has been progress in securing the site with security personnel, with the future aim of installing camera surveillan­ce.

Other areas of improvemen­t, she said, included equipment management and re-installati­on, which have all been dealt with according to plan.

She said the completion of pumping sewage effluent and desludging was also on track, signalling that the removal of scrapper downpipes and refurbishm­ents will start this month.

“When we handed the project over to the Developmen­t Bank of Southern Africa, we envisioned March 2025 as the deadline for general building and mechanical engineerin­g and April 2025 for the Phase 1 completion deadline,” she said.

She reiterated that Rooiwal refurbishm­ents would ensure that the quality of water discharged from the plant was improved.

“Once the system runs steadily at the plant, we should be able to monitor the safety and quality of the water provided and its chemical distributi­ons.

“Our visit to Rooiwal also finalised the final steps to ensuring that Hammanskra­al residents have access to clean water by September 2024. This deadline is still within our reach with the completion of the water meter readings project. Over 30000 household meters were assessed during the programme,” Moya said.

She expressed gratitude to the residents of Hammanskra­al for their co-operation in enabling the City to complete water meter audits two months ahead of schedule.