On 27 September 2022 a community meeting was hosted to discuss a new sewerage project for Ward 6 & 10 of Port Alfred entitled:
“INTRODUCTION OF THE PORT ALFRED SEWERAGE INFRASTRUCTURE IMPLEMENTATION PROJECT – PHASE 1”
This meeting was hosted by BSDS CC who are the appointed consultants who will be working on this project, as well as representation from Ndlambe LM, the Environmental Consultants on the project & Ward 10 Councillor Nadine Haynes. Apologies were given by Mr Edward Walker, the Ward 6 Councillor whose constituents will also be affected by this project. Attendance by residents and ratepayers was good and many questions were posed during and after the presentation. Minutes of this meeting will be made available to all attendees and PARRA shall share these as well for all interested parties to read.
A brief summary of the project is as follows:
- Grant funding has been made available to increase water borne sanitation throughout Ward 6 & 10 in Port Alfred.
- Currently only 1/3 of the Erven within these Ward’s are connected to water borne sanitation, the goal is to add another 400 Erven and connect them to the main sewerage system in Port Alfred.
- This is a multi-year project with many different phases.
- The meeting last night addressed an initial “Quick win” phase.
- The advantage of increasing water borne sanitation is to increase the sewerage which is going to the water treatment facility and therefore increase water supply to Port Alfred.
- Consultants are working on a larger sewer “Master Plan” which will be the umbrella term for all the different phases and projects which will happen.
- The Consultants undertook that a map of affected areas/erven intended to be added to the water borne sanitation program will be provided along with the Minutes of the meeting.
- These projects will cause considerable disruptions to residents/ratepayers and therefore PARRA encourages the community to attend these meetings so that they are informed of who will be affected and how.
- These disruptions include: trenching and reinstatement of roads.
- The consultant who presented made it clear that not all properties can be added because of the slope of the land, environmental issues and other impracticalities.
- Concerns raised by the attendees where:
- Maintenance – is this part of the budget of the project? We were advised that the funding of this project is purely for new infrastructure and that Ndlambe LM will be responsible for maintenance.
- Costs – what will the additional tariffs be for the ratepayers whose properties will be affected.
- Lack of information and resources – attendees indicated their frustration with the lack of communication from Ndlambe LM and also the availability of reports, maps and information regarding this and other projects. PARRA has directed an email this morning (28 September 2022) to Adv Rolly Dumezweni requesting a meeting to address this issue with Ndlambe LM. Access to information is crucial, empowering and also important so that our residents/ratepayers know which meetings to attend and which projects will affect them.
- Nominations were made for the formation of the Project Steering Committee and we are pleased that our Chairman, Mr Dawie van Wyk, as asked to be on this Committee.
PARRA will continue to work to update our residents/ratepayers and keep them informed. Please show your support by joining us as a member and backing our cause to help build a better Port Alfred for us all.
We will share the Minutes of the meeting once we are in possession of such.
