The Department of Water and Sanitation and the City of Tshwane have decided to take immediate steps to address the recurring problem of sewage spillage at Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Works in Pretoria.

This follows a meeting between the department’s enforcement unit and the senior management of the city on Wednesday.

In January 2011, the department issued the Waste Water Treatment Works with a notice in terms of the National Water Act regarding the recurring overflowing of sludge from the sludge lagoons or maturation ponds into the Apies River.

This was discovered during a site inspection on 9 December 2011.

The department’s enforcement unit then met with city officials and the parties identified the overloaded plant and the presence of sludge as the main problems.

Then a tender was issued by the city for a professional company to refurbish the facility. The tender was however cancelled due to ‘fronting’ by the successful company.

A second tender was issued in 2014 and that was also cancelled when time lapsed.

The department said on Thursday that the department and city agreed that council officials will go on-site on 23 July 2015 to assess the situation.

It will send an action plan to the department within seven days of the inspection.

It was further agreed that meetings will be held until the operation at the Waste Water Treatment Works runs at 100 percent capacity.