Repairs to Durban Water Recycling plant completed

As a result of the KwaZulu-Natal floods, the Durban Water Recycling (DWR) plant was affected by a week-long power outage, and there was damage to the feed supply infrastructure from the Umlaas River/Chatsworth catchment area.

Veolia operates and maintains the DWR plant on behalf of the City of eThekwini. Constructed in 2000, the plant recycles wastewater equivalent to the generation of about 220 000 households in the city.

“The extreme weather events caused severe damages and blockages to the supply network. We observed a reduction in feedwater from about 25 000 m3/day to 4 800 m3/day as of 14 April 2022. Typical industrial reclaimed water consumption is about 14 000 m3/day,” says Siva Chetty, regional services manager for Veolia Services Southern Africa (VSSA) in KwaZuluNatal. Furthermore, the plant faced reduced sewage flows, which, in turn, compromised the plant’s biological systems. These issues resulted in an increased risk of environmental pollution and health risks for the surrounding communities.

Three acute failure points

To address these issues and restore adequate flows to DWR, Veolia consulted to the eThekwini Municipality to survey damages to the catchment system. It identified three acute failure points.

In Chatsworth Silverglen, a section of 660 mm diameter steel line washed away. “The resultant spillage polluted the local river and environment, and caused reduced feed flow to DWR. Veolia expended its resources to fix this line,” says Chetty. VSSA engaged the services of engineering contractors to repair the pipe failures at two points in the Chatsworth feed line. “This intervention resulted in flow to DWR increasing from 4 Mℓ/day to 12 Mℓ/day,” adds Chetty.

The second catchment system fault was the damage to the sewage transfer pipeline from Umlaas to DWR. This also included wash-away of the road system. The third was a blockage on the Chatsworth line, near RK Khan hospital.

In both these cases, Veolia reported the failures to eThekwini Municipality. In the case of the pipe blockage, the municipality engaged its network team to unblock the pipeline to restore flows into the pipe instead of polluting the river course. “The Umlaas feeder fault is complex. Veolia has advised that to address this, the municipality will require a multidisciplinary and integrated approach, involving roads, stormwater systems, land reinstatement, river course management and social involvement. Veolia will provide strategic-level input,” explains Chetty.

Supporting affected clients

Most of Veolia’s clients in KwaZulu-Natal were flooded (including Mondi, Toyota, Simba and MSSL), with extensive damage to infrastructure and plant equipment. “Mondi and Sapref – both being DWR offtake partners – have declared force majeure as a consequence of the unprecedented flooding and damages to their respective infrastructure,” notes Chetty.

While each client is undertaking repairs, Veolia has supported the process. “We supplied reclaimed water to facilitate mopping up. And the Veolia Mondi team of 17 personnel assisted with clean-up and repairs. Our maintenance and electrical teams also assisted in assessing damage to motors and equipment,” states Chetty.