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The Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Lindiwe Sisulu, visited the Vaal River Intervention Project yesterday, 21 January 2020. Minister Sisulu, accompanied by the Human Settlements/COGTA MEC in Gauteng, Lebogang Maile, the Mayor of Emfuleni, Reverend Gift Moerane, MMCs and councillors of the Emfuleni Local Municipality, supported by relevant officials, was in the area of Emfuleni to visit the Vaal River Intervention Project to receive an update on the progress made by ERWAT since coming on site towards the end of 2019.

It is important to note that ERWAT, an entity of government specialising in wastewater treatment, was appointed to take over and build on the progress that began with the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) between December 2018 and end of November 2019. ERWAT Managing Director, Mr Tumelo Gopane said ten contractors were appointed and 117 local people from Emfuleni were employed.

He said a lot of waste water networks in Vereeniging have been cleared, which has resulted in the increase of water flow to Waste Water Treatment Plants. He said before unblocking the sewage systems, only 20% of waste water could reach the treatment plants and 80% of it would be lost to spillage.

Mr Gopane has also appealed to communities not to throw foreign objects in the Waste Water pipelines. He has called on Emfuleni Municipality to enforce the existing and updated by-laws, and to educate communities of the gravity of throwing unwanted objects in the sewage system. In her remarks, Minister highlighted the importance of all the stakeholders to play their part as the project will not succeed without their participation. The business community, which is one of the stakeholders, committed itself to working with the project leaders and Vaal community to ensure the intervention succeeds. 

“It has taken us a long time to get to this point, as we know that that the problem of spillage has been going on for an extended period of time. This problem not only affected the local community, but it also affected the local tourism badly. However, I would like to assure the community and the rest of South Africa that the government is committed to do things differently, and to ensure that people live in dignity. We were saddened about the problem here in Emfuleni and we are working to ensure that it won’t happen again”, said Minister Sisulu.

Minister also appealed to the local community members to protect their infrastructure and ensure that there is no vandalism. The project is expected to create a sizeable number of jobs and economic opportunities for the local community. Already over 100 local community members have been employed and 10 contractors are already on site.

Minister Sisulu has directed there be a follow up meeting in June when ERWAT will detail how far they will be.

Issued by GCIS on behalf of the Department of Water & Sanitation