The Department of Water and Sanitation wishes to strongly reaffirm its commitment to continue to work doggedly with stakeholders to speed up the longstanding sewer pollution of the Vaal River.

Recently, the Department finalised the scope of all that needs to be done to solve the sewer challenge and 26 work packages will be advertised in the coming weeks for competent contractors to be part of solving the protracted sewer challenge.

This means that the appointed contractors will be on the ground during the festive season. In the current financial year (2020/21), the Department has committed R911 million towards solving the sewer spillage challenge.

A total investment by the Department in the 2020/21 financial year is R1.2 billion for work that includes the building of additional wastewater treatment capacity and associated pump stations.

Provided there are no community protests leading to work stoppages, and these have become more frequent in recent times, the Department plans to launch the Module 6 in the Sebokeng Water Care Works before the end of the current financial year.

It should be noted that the Department is taking all the necessary precautions to ensure that it complies with the provisions of Section 217 of the Constitution in terms of procurement. In this regard, the Departmental checks and balances had to be followed to the letter to ensure compliance with procurement processes.

This thoroughness on the part of the Department caused delays but was necessary to ensure processes were done in a completely honest and straightforward manner.

The process of advertising for competent contractors is at its final stages and adverts will be in the government gazette soon.

The start and completion dates of the project will be communicated to all interested stakeholders once the contractors have been appointed as the Department cannot pre-empt this before the appointments have been made.

On Monday, 12 October 2020, the Departmental Acting Director-General, Mr Trevor Balzer and his team engaged relevant stakeholders with a view to strengthen the inclusive and coherent programme which will help see the intervention work through to its successful conclusion