RIVERTON – The Sol Plaatje Municipality has announced significant progress on a multi-year project to improve its bulk water supply infrastructure. The project, funded by an R2.5 billion grant from the National Treasury’s Budget Facility for Infrastructure Programme (BFI), aims to address critical maintenance issues and reverse the municipality’s water challenges.
Contracts Awarded and Work Begins
Three contracts totalling R88.26 million have been awarded as part of the initiative. These contracts focus on:
- Installing emergency meters, flow, and quality monitoring systems (R28.4 million)
- Emergency leak repairs on priority leaks (R18.9 million)
- Upgrading the new water treatment plant’s chlorine, chemical dosing, instrumentation, and control systems (R40.8 million)
Site handover for all three contracts is complete, and construction work has started. Already, several leaks have been fixed.
The municipality anticipates awarding two further projects by March 15th, 2024. Several other tenders are currently in progress.
Minimizing Disruptions
The municipality acknowledges that some supply interruptions will be unavoidable during construction. They commit to minimizing the duration and frequency of disruptions and to communicating planned interruptions to residents.
Improvements at Riverton Treatment Plant
Efforts are also underway to boost water production at the Riverton Water Treatment Plant:
- Two dysfunctional clarifiers at the old plant are being restored. One is already operational; the second is being cleaned and will improve water production by 15Ml/day.
- Filter media at the New Treatment Plant has been replaced to improve filtration and water production capacity.
Collaboration and Gratitude
The municipality is collaborating with Bigen Africa and Ekapa Mining, which has provided R10 million in funding for the project. The Sol Plaatje Municipality expresses its gratitude for the support of the community and stakeholders in these efforts to achieve water supply security and ultimately provide uninterrupted, high-quality water service.