Being the oldest city in South Africa, Cape Town battles with some of the oldest infrastructure in the country.

With this in mind, the City of Cape Town is accelerating the upgrading of its water and sanitation infrastructure, in order to meet the demands of the fast-growing metropolis.

The City plans to spend R786 million on this in the next financial year, while close to 15% of the City’s R5-5 billion capital budget will be spent on water infrastructure and wastewater management.

The replacement value of Cape Town’s water and sanitation infrastructure would cost approximately R23-billion, so ageing infrastructure has to be constantly upgraded and replaced.

"The City needs to avoid another Eskom crisis by upgrading before it is too late. We are developing new infrastructure to meet the demands of a growing metropolis," says Alderman Clive Justus, Mayoral Committee Member for Utility Services.

"The backlog of water mains replacement would become unmanageable if infrastructural replacement is not accelerated now."

According to Justus, the City is systematically replacing ageing water pipes. Over the past three years the City has accelerated pipe replacements from 7,4 km per year to the current year-to-date 33.8 km (as at April 2008) and hopes to complete 40 km of pipeline by the end of this financial year, June 2009.

"This only amounts to a 0,5% replacement of the metropole’s water networks of 10 500 km. The international norm is between 1% and 2% of the total network," he says.

The City is also commencing with a R56-million sewer replacement programme and has conducted a city-wide audit of the sewer system’s 9 000 km of pipelines.

"Including 2007, we have completed 518 km of programmed sewer CCTV physical inspection across the metropolis and have started rehabilitation with 4.4km relined and 8.9 km under construction since November 2008, and this will be ongoing planned maintenance to reduce the backlog" said Lungile Dhlamini, Director: Water and Sanitation.

Meanwhile the City’s Wastewater Branch is upgrading the Green Point marine sewer outfall, in order to accommodate the additional sewage flows expected during the 2010 FIFA World Cup™.

The upgrade will result in the noise, odour and visible impact of the operation being limited, but will not change the design of the historic pump station next to the Green Point lighthouse.
The odour control system will be replaced.

The sewer outfall serves the greater CBD of Cape Town from Woodstock to Bantry Bay.