Kanye struggles with wastewater disposal

MARANYANE NGWAAMOTHO
Staff Writer | Wednesday October 13, 2010 00:00

Southern District Council Chairman Leach Tlhomelang, told Minister of Minerals Energy and Water Resources, Ponatshego Kedikilwe last week at Goodhope during an emergency meeting that the village depends on pit latrines, septic tanks and soak away for the disposal of waste water, which is not environmentally friendly and poses a great pollution threat to ground water. 

Kanye has a population of more than 50,000 people that still depend on pit latrines.

'It is only Sejelo Police Station, Kanye Education Centre and a few institutional houses that are connected with a single transmission line to a very small capacity and dilapidated sewage treatment ponds with two lift pump stations,' said Tlhomelang.  The council chairman complained that sewage infrastructure development in Kanye has for a long time not been given priority to other infrastructure services.  He said that development on the provision of water continues to grow without corresponding facilities for receiving, conveying and treating sewage from such facilities.

Tlhomelang said that Kanye is now experiencing pressure from lack of such a facility.  'This brought problems of wastewater and sewage management that are beginning to manifest themselves in the form of sewage overflows as evidenced by the flow in the middle of the village because of overloaded sewer pipes, full septic tanks which we do not have adequate capacity in the form of vacuum tankers to empty,' he said. 

In March, Assistant Minister of Local Government Botlogile Tshireletso accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Environment Wildlife and Tourism as well as Local Government toured Kanye to find out the state of sanitation and waste management. 

President Ian Khama had assigned the team after the council chairman paid him an emergency visit on the same matter. 

The team found that the council was heavily burdened with the non-sustainable operation of travelling some 110 km round trip to dispose of sewage at Lobatse. 

Again, they found out that Kanye has a water table in most of the built up areas particularly at the CBD, hence water is often disruptive to management of onsite sanitation facilities. This results in obvious ground water pollution.

The team found that sewage waste overflow was continuously flowing through the village.  The treated sewage from the hospital was flowing continuously through streams down below the storm water drains forming stagnant ponds at the CBD near Barclays bank. 

Again, the sewage formed green algae in the storm water drains, which is a potential health hazard and environmental pollution that needed immediate attention. 

It was also discovered that there were a number of industrial sites and shopping centres and no sanitation facilities on a high water table geographical location, which would easily result in ground water pollution hence the need for sewer connection. 

The team found that emptying of pit latrines is always at a backlog as a result of insufficient sewage vacuum tankers.  Outsourcing collection of refuse would add value to waste collection except that it would cost the council almost P2 million every year. 

After the assessment, the team advised that the council needed at least seven vacuum tankers.  Another short-term measure suggestion to control the situation was the construction of a lined and fenced temporary sludge disposal facility that will act as a sludge digester.  The facility will help in diverting disposal of the toilet sludge in Lobatse, hence shorten the distance and save costs. 

A long-term solution is the construction of the village sewerage scheme.  The design for this scheme is complete even though the project was shelved due to the current economic recession.