A ZAR1.3 billion upgrade to the Macassar wastewater treatment facility will future-proof water and sanitation services in Cape Town for the next two decades.

As well as more than doubling treatment capacity from 34 million litres a day to 80 million litres a day, the upgrade will reduce energy consumption, optimise operation and maintenance and improve the inland water quality of the nearby Eerste river, reports Engineering News. The prime motivator is Cape Town’s burgeoning population.

Civil work on the project is expected to start in January 2026 and includes upgrading the existing process trains to improve the treatment processes, resulting in better effluent quality that complies with environmental licence standards.

The improved infrastructure will include inlet works with better screening and degritting; flow balancing and primary sedimentation systems; new biological reactors with full nutrient removal; secondary settling tanks and UV/chlorine disinfection; refurbished maturation ponds and gravity sludge thickeners; anaerobic digesters and combined heat and power installation; dewatering facilities; and treated storage effluent pump stations, according to District Mail Helderberg.

2 December 2025
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