Everyone in Hoedspruit is now blatantly aware of the serious sewage problem that has enveloped the town in the last month – not that it was ever absent! Where is it off to now?
The current issue
It is now the sewage has literally and categorically ‘hit the fan’. This is not, by any ‘stench’ of the imagination, something that can be fixed speedily – in fact Mopani District Municipality needs to get their ‘A’ into ‘G’ and get down and dirty! It is now time, and we as a community need to start to get more active and exert as much pressure as we can on them to get a move on.
Municipal status
If the sewage problem lies firmly at their (Mopani District Municipality) door, and there has been continual efforts by the DA and the Hoedspruit Chamber (and others) to get things moving (what looks like and feels like a fruitless undertaking), why are years going by and NOTHING is being done about it? Is it through incompetence, lack of understanding, a lack of funds, not actually having any clue of what to do, or just simply a lack of interest (because there is actually work to be done)?
It is understood that Maruleng Municipality has nothing really to do with either the water (from the Air Force Base) or the sewage – this is a Mopani District Municipality managed matter. The Air Force Base co-operates as best they can and assists where they can – Mopani however seem to be absolutely useless when approached for feedback or action – they do not know what they are doing! The only person that has any idea is Mr Petrus Ngobeni (the Manager of Maruleng Water and Sanitation) – but he only deals with issues in the town itself. He is not responsible for any pump station or the pipeline to Drakensig. He will deal with water and sewage problems “in the streets”, so as to speak.
With horror it was ascertained that there are no plans or details of where the sewage pipes (or water pipes) run in and around Hoedspruit – those details ‘have been lost’! The only person that seems to understand the system in town is Chris Dreyer from Drain Surgeon. He always helps if and when he can but is also limited in terms of what he can do from an equipment capability perspective. It is probable that this issue is just too big and needs municipal, if not national intervention.
The ‘idiots guide’
La Bamba pump station pumps sewage to the Leguaan street pump station. That pump station also gets sewage from other areas of town. At the pump station there is a shredding dam that treats the sewage to make it easier to pump to Drakensig (the Air Force Base purification plant). This shredding dam, however, has been out of commission for years. The result is that the dam fills up with sewage with no ‘shredding’ being done. This sewage then flows into two ‘pump caverns’, each of which has a pump lowered into it on a rail, by a steel block and tackle chain. The object of these pumps is to pump the sewage up the pipeline all the way to Drakensig.
The pipeline to Drakensig is three kilometres long but has NO manholes along that stretch. As mentioned before, the added problem is that no one really knows (due to a lack of plans) where the pipeline is! There is only one access point above the Kamagelo centre, but after that the pipeline position is a mystery.
Back to the pumps – the problem is that one of the pumps is out of service because the block and tackle chain has been dropped into one of the pits where a pump is and has never been extracted. The fear (supposedly) is that if the pump is activated it will break because it will become entangled with the chain. Why no one has lowered an industrial magnet to pull the chain out is not known – and because of the sheer volume of sewage, it appears that the pit in question cannot be drained to raise the pump and reconnect the block and tackle, to reposition the pump!
The other pit has a pump that was not quite aligned, so there was a problem pumping the sewage up the pipeline. This resulted in another temporary pipe being laid to facilitate more efficient pumping from this pit.
The pump station can work at 100% with one pump operational if there is a rotation back and forth between pumps to share the load. This is not rocket science, to understand that this facility, operating on only one pump, which is used continuously with no ‘off time’, creates the scenario where it’s only a matter of time before that pump falters through overuse.
Back to the shredder – because this is out of commission, the sewage being ‘dumped’ into the pits for pumping has not been shredded and is therefore bulky, and not the consistency that should be pumped through the pipeline. This poses a huge problem and likelihood of a blockage – in a pipeline whose position is not known and has no manholes through which to access it!
And this is exactly what has happened! The pipe from the Leguaan pump station is now blocked. The result is that no sewage can be pumped out of that pump station, and it has now filled up and continues to have sewage flowing into the station – the dam fills, the pits are full, and the only course for the sewage to flow is out of the pump station and into ‘poopspruit’, into Raptors View Estate, through Southern Cross School and into Osprey Dam on Raptors View Estate.
This is not only a dire situation, but is a very serious one, which has resulted in a resident of Raptors View Estate having samples taken and tested – it seems that nothing was being done in terms of sampling by the estate, the school or the municipalities!
The immediate issue is threefold
Firstly, the Leguaan pump station is operating on one pump only and cannot continue to cope with the deluge of sewage from the town without rotation of the pumps at the pump station.
Secondly, there is now a blockage in the pipe to Drakensig, and save for a stroke of luck, this will be very, very difficult to find should the blockage not be in close vicinity to the pump station. The lack of manholes on the three-kilometre stretch of pipe poses huge problems.
Thirdly, a contributing factor to this disaster is the fact that load shedding hampers the sewage pumping process. This would be quite simply solved if the generator, which is housed close to the pump station was in working order. This generator has not been working for many years (it may or may not be in working order), but the problem is that the automatic switch-over to generator power from Eskom power, at times of load shedding, is broken.
It seems that Hoedspruit town now faces a lengthy time period until this matter is properly and finally solved, unless the Limpopo and/or the National government get involved and action a repair process or upgrade (preferably) as a matter of urgency. Right now, they are literally floundering in the dark.
Water tests
The results of the independent water tests have been shared with the relevant parties involved. These tests have revealed that there are serious pathogens in the sewage overflow, but thankfully this is a localised. We are not only talking about a potential dire consequence for us humans, but also a potential devastating effect on the wildlife in the area.
There has been action by Raptors View Estate and Southern Cross School in adding a bacterial/enzymatic treatment to oxygenate the sewage, to temporarily depress the pathogen status and the odour. It also aids in the faster degradation of the effluent. This was purchased from a company, Biochem, in KwaZulu Natal who had dealt with sewage spills in the past, and so have ample experience in this field. The chemical application (a ‘brick’ placed in the flow below the causeway near the pump station), will lead to an algal bloom which will then be contained and controlled by further applications of chemicals to target ammonia and nitrites (by-products of the degradation process), until normality is achieved. It must be stressed that the chemicals used had the caveat prior to purchase of being environmentally safe and friendly. This may well be an ongoing intervention until the sewage overflow problem is solved.
Many agencies have got involved including Afriforum, Raptors View Estate, the DA, the Chamber of Commerce, Maruleng Municipality, Mopani District Municipality, and the Department of Water and Sanitation from Mpumalanga. One may question why Mpumalanga is involved? It is simply because of the Lower Olifants Catchment Management Forum being run out of Mpumalanga, and because of the seriousness of the situation (which they realise), they are involved because of their management of that catchment area. It boils down to a situation that at all costs they need to prevent pollution in the wider lower Oliphants catchment area – and how about Hoedspruit itself?! Clearly the Lower Olifants Catchment Management Forum view this as enough of a threat to be involved.
On the other side of the hill – another ‘leak’
It is well known that the purification plant at the Air Force Base is running well beyond 100% capacity, and it is patently not coping. In fact, the sewage is flowing from the plant and onto the next-door farm. Of course, being like water, the sewage seeks the line of least resistance and flows down a drainage line into a dam. From there is flows out and continues down the drainage line and into another dam and eventually into a dam near Parma Nursery. It seems that Parma Nursery built the dam to irrigate their plants, but the water quality was so bad it was never used. The outflow from that dam is clearly polluted and smells of sewage. On inspection, dead fish were seen in the stream below the dam, and bleached algae hinted at seriously contaminated water.
The problem clearly has two prongs to it – the problem in town and the problem at the Air Force Base. They are as important as each other, but it is believed that the Air Force Base is doing their part in providing solutions to their side of the problem – it’s now up to us to find proper solutions on our side of the fence.
A worrisome conclusion
Thankfully we have the likes of Ms. Marie Helm on our side, and it is with her dedication and fortitude (together with others), that this problem has now been escalated to the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation on a national level. We thank all the individuals involved for their efforts. At the time of going to print Hoedspruit waits in anticipation for some effective solutions.
At the time of writing this article, it was advised that the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation in Giyani had joined the fray, and had spoken to Mopani District Municipality (Dr Shilowa) who confirmed that they – Mopani – were sending a contractor (PSP) to deal with the problem. Of course, the million-dollar question is when does that contractor turn up? Will it in fact be that contractor or will they palm it onto someone else? Hopefully by the time you read this, the contractor (whoever that may be) will have come and gone.
This problem is not going to go away unless there is a serious commitment, action, and a refurbishing of the current infrastructure – it’s as simple as that. We cannot ‘fix’ today what will continue to be a problem tomorrow.
In the meantime, the sewage flows continue unabated. The stench remains unbearable. The likelihood of disease is looming precariously on the precipice. Municipal action is limited, and we wait …… Christmas is around the corner, and the possible knock-on effect to our economy in Hoedspruit and the surrounds, might rest firmly on the shoulders of those that are indifferent and possibly incapable.
