A relatively poor turnout of just over 40 residents attended the City of Cape Town’s stakeholder engagement session for Subcouncil 8, which was held at the Strand Town Hall last Wednesday (15 November).
The event was attended by various City teams representing several departments, including Water and Sanitation, Urban Mobility, Spatial Planning and the Environment, and Energy as well as councillors representing the Helderberg and Beverley van Reenen, the Mayoral Committee member for Energy.
Subcouncil manager Erika Williams opened the meeting and welcomed everyone present, and explained the purpose of the meeting was to provide information to the community regarding the repairs, upgrade and maintenance plans to improve the condition of the City’s aging infrastructure and how the City intends to address problems caused by events such as the recent storms and flooding.
Leila Mahomed, director of the Sustainable Energy Markets (SEM) Department in the City’s Energy Directorate, started with a presentation on the load shedding national outlook, the impact on Cape Town and progress on the City’s resilience plans. She also spoke about residential and commercial solar projects. A ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) and battery-storage project at Paardevlei in Somerset West will yield up to 60 MW of renewable energy – enough to protect against one full stage of Eskom’s load shedding, Mahomed added.
Van Reenen also took to the stage to address the City’s challenges when it comes to theft and vandalism of electricity infrastructure and the huge costs it comes with, and also spoke about illegal connections and what the City has been doing to address it. She urged communities to report incidents and help protect city infrastructure.
A presentation then followed on Water an Sanitation Bulk Services and some feedback was given on the Lourens River repairs, Joubert Street repairs and interventions for reactive maintenance during sewer collapses, long-term capital investment projects and summer season preparedness.
An update on the Gordon’s Bay Sewer Rising Main was also given, and it was mentioned that the project is currently in the procurement stage and is on track in terms of the project programme. The construction contract was awarded on 13 November and work is expected to commence in February 2024.
Matters relating to sewer collapses and pump-station operations were also addressed as City officials mentioned inter-departmental plans in place to cover protocols, controls and responses to incidents.
An overview on capital projects, current and planned was also presented, along with a brief overview of the interventions along the Soet River, which has been plagued by maintenance and pollution issues.
The Spatial Planning and the Environment Department presented its coastal management plan, instituted to resolve challenges and infrastructure damage, which occurred during recent high tides and flooding as well as dune management.
