Sol municipality gets ultimatum to fix sewage plant

SOL PLAATJE Municipality has been instructed to submit a progress report by May 30 outlining steps taken to ensure that the Homevale Wastewater Treatment Plant (HWWTP) is fully functional and that unacceptably high sewage spillages around Kamfers Dam are reduced.

- SANDI KWON HOO

Landowner Brenda Booth of Northern Cape Ranchers CC has lodged a claim against Sol Plaatje Municipality for past damages amounting to R625,000 due to flooding of her land since 2020.

She also filed for future penalties of R125,000 per annum until the disaster is adequately addressed, in compliance with a March 2024 court order.

Booth suffered extensive losses after 700 hectares of her land were destroyed by overflowing sewage, rendering it unusable for conservation and commercial farming.

Her application for monetary damages was dismissed by the Northern Cape High Court on March 24.

More than 150 bird carcasses were collected along the Kamfers Dam pan in December 2024, with botulism believed to be the cause of death. The flamingo wetland sanctuary has been destroyed as a result of water pollution.

It was highlighted that contaminated water is threatening to submerge two Transnet railway lines along the N12.

Northern Cape Ranchers CC maintained that “nothing had changed” since the March 2024 order was issued to take remedial steps.

The organisation noted that while clear-vu fencing had been installed around the HWWTP, there was no mention of measures to prevent further acts of vandalism.

Northern Cape High Court Judge Almé Stanton Stanton found it “absolutely astounding” that the municipality claimed that it needed R106 million to repair a 33-megalitre module at the HWWTP, since a submission was made for funding from the Department of Water and Sanitation in June 2024.