Having suffered sewage flooded streets for many years, residents in Wallacedene, Bloekombos and surrounding areas in Kraaifontein can expect some reprieve this year as R37,8 million was allocated in the 2022-’23 budget for sewage infrastructure upgrades.
This amount is more than double what was spent on the sewage system in the previous year.
Inadequate infrastructure in these areas regularly causes sewage overflows that spills over to many neighbouring suburbs. In Botfontein, 12 streets were flooded and many houses damaged when sewage flooded the suburb in August last year.
At the Botfontein pond R19,5 million is to be invested in operational projects and R3 million each at the Wallacedene and Daza pump stations.
For capital projects, R5 million was allocated to overall operations while another R350 000 each is to be spent at the Wallacedene and Daza pump stations.
According to Dennis Joseph, former member of Parliament for the Kraaifontein and Brackenfell constituency, infrastructure upgrades are urgently needed here.
“The people in Wallacedene and surrounding areas have to put up with sewage overflows on a regular basis. We welcome the budget and the commitment of the City’s water and sanitation department’s focus on these areas.”
These projects form part of an R8 billion City-wide campaign to upgrade the water and sanitation system over the next three years.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said the City had not sufficiently invested in maintenance and refurbishment of the sewerage infrastructure resulting in extensive problems that require major infrastructure investment.
“The poor state of our infrastructure network threatens the health of citizens and we are taking immediate action to fix these problems,” he said when tabling the budget a fortnight ago.
Residents have until 3 May to comment on the City budget.
The budget can be viewed at the City’ website at www.capetown.go.za/budget or your nearest subcouncil office and comments can be made per email at Budget.Comments@capetown.gov.za for more information.
