City’s sewers prepped ahead of the bustling summer season
19 December 2025
The City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Directorate has been ramping up cleaning efforts across Cape Town since July 2025 to prepare its sewer system for a busy summer. This work aims to ensure reliable sanitation services throughout the festive period.
The City ensures proactive cleaning of sewer lines all year-round through its maintenance teams or contractors. However, activities intensify as the summer season approaches to prepare our infrastructure for an influx of visitors.
For the 2025/2026 financial year, the City has invested approximately R92 million towards sewer cleaning and aims to clean 300 km of pipes by the end of the financial year in June 2026.
To date, the City has successfully cleaned 191 km of sewers, using various methods such as jetting and bucketing.
In addition to the proactive sewer cleaning, the following are in place:
- Reactive maintenance, and emergency work will continue.
- Sewer conveyance and pump station teams are working closely together to prevent sewer spills.
- Adequate fleet, operators, and equipment are on hand, ready for rapid response, with no resource constraints for proactive or reactive work.
- The cleaning routine for coastal pump stations are aligned to complement sewer network cleaning, for maximum efficiencies
‘The City is working around the clock to protect our sewer infrastructure. The integrity of the system can be better sustained through a reduction of illegal common household items found causing sewer blockages. Wet wipes, rags and sanitary items must always be disposed of in the bin.
‘It’s also important to log a service request to report vandalised or missing manholes, which helps protect the service access points to the City’s sewer reticulation network,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Water and Sanitation, Councillor Zahid Badroodien.
How residents can help prevent sewer overflows
- Only flush human waste and toilet paper. Do not flush wet wipes, sanitary items or nappies.
- Avoid pouring fats, oils, and leftover food down the drain.
- Use official City waste services and avoid dumping waste into drains.
- Check your property for illegal stormwater-to-sewer connections and ensure gutters are not feeding into the sewer system.
- Report sewer blockages and vandalism as soon as they are noticed. Dispose of recyclables at the nearest
drop-off facility.
Log a service request
To report sewer blockages, vandalism, missing manhole covers, burst pipes, leaks, or water wastage, use one of these channels and include the street address and request a reference number:
Caption 1: City maintenance teams proactively cleaning the sewers in Muizenberg.
Caption 2: Anton Ceto from the Kendal Road Sewer Depot cleaning a sewer line at Kalk Bay Harbour.
Caption 3: (Dropbox) City maintenance teams proactively cleaning the sewers in Kalk Bay Harbour. From left: Siphiwe Nongwana, Manonophela Mtetandaba, Glenfrid Hendricks, Anton Ceto, and Sigqibo Nogaya (Head: Reticulation Wastewater Conveyance).
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
