Overstand keeps it green
Overstrand Municipality recently took second place in the Western Cape 2017 Greenest Municipality Competition, while winning the categories for waste management, water conservation and water management, as well as biodiversity management.
The overall competition was won by Swartland Municipality (Malmesbury) while Hessequa Municipality (Riversdal) came third.
Overstrand has won the waste management category seven times in the last nine years and the water management category four times in the last five years.
In his keynote address at the function held at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West on 27 November, Anton Bredell, Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, said: The Greenest Municipality Competition Awards celebrate the constant hard work which makes our towns function, the passion of officials who carry out work against challenging odds, and the spirit of co-operation and efforts to use our resources wisely for the benefit of all our citizens.”
Along with scoring second place in the overall competition, Overstrand also secured prize money of R70 000.The competition is organised by the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning and will henceforth be held every two years, with the next round set for 2019.
On 29 November, a delegation from Rand Water in Johannesburg and the Water Research Commission paid a visit to Overstrand Municipality to learn more about adaptive water management and the successful utilisation of groundwater.
As Preekstoel Water Treatment Works (WTW) is a first of its kind in South Africa, the Overstrand is setting the bar for other municipalities regarding harvest potential of groundwater (aquifer systems).
The specific purpose of the Preekstoel plant is to remove the very high iron and manganese content from the borehole water before it is blended with the treated surface water from the De Bos Dam. Preekstoel uses a unique bio-filtration system to remove manganese and iron content found in groundwater. This entails creating ideal conditions for specific iron and manganese bacteria to grow in the filter media. In the process of purification, the bacteria consume the iron and manganese in the water.The potential of hydrogen (pH) and the dissolved oxygen content are controlled to create the right conditions for the bacteria.
The delegation was taken on a tour of the Preekstoel Waste Water Treatment Works expansion and shown some of the municipality’s key projects, such as the Hermanus groundwater scheme.