Cape Town faces sewage crisis.

20 Feb, 2007

City officials have warned of an imminent sewage crisis in Cape Town if improvements are not made to waste water treatment plants in the city. Mayoral committee member for trading services Lionel Roelf has said in a statement that most facilities are already operating near or beyond capacity and with ageing, ineffective infrastructure, with the result that poorly treated effluent is released into the environment from some plants. The city council has drawn up a R1 billion five-year emergency plan to address the problem, warning that new infrastructure projects in the city may be postponed until the sewage system has been improved. With a population of around three million people, the Mother City produces over 564 million litres of domestic and industrial sewage per day.