SOUTH AFRICA: Rouxville drinking water plant to be restarted before the end of 2021

The Rouxville drinking water plant in South Africa’s Free State province will reopen before the end of 2021. This was noted by the South African authorities after an inspection visit to the project site.

According to a press release from the Presidency of the Republic of South Africa, the modernisation work on the Rouxville drinking water plant, which was launched in March 2021, is 94% complete. The same source states that the project involves the construction of a new 4.8 km long riser pipe between the drinking water plant and the three existing reservoirs, as well as the modernisation of five existing boreholes.

A project carried out by South Africa’s Lohan

At the time of delivery, the Rouxville drinking water plant will have a production capacity of 3,200 m³ per day. Lohan Construction Industry, based in Bloemfontein in the Free State province, is carrying out the rehabilitation work on the plant. The company specialises in development, infrastructure, transport, earthworks, roads, telecommunications, piping, mechanical and electrical engineering and all aspects of the civil construction industry.

The project aims to improve the supply of drinking water in the town of Rouxville, as well as in the surrounding towns. The upgraded water treatment plant will also help to reduce the need for drinking water in the Rainbow Nation. To address the water shortage in South Africa, the authorities are also looking at unconventional water resources such as desalination of seawater and brackish groundwater.

Read also- DRINKING WATER: major African programmes that are making a difference locally

In the Eastern Cape, a seawater desalination plant will soon be built. The plant will be located in Nelson Mandela Bay and will have a capacity of 15 000 m³. This drinking water supply project will benefit 1.25 million people.

Inès Magoum