In one of the biggest projects of it's type ever undertaken in South Africa, a large Cape wetlands has been emptied and the contaminated sludge at the bottom of the lake has been removed in order to make way for the building of a large new surrounding waterfront project.
The firms JPS Water and Sewerage Contractors, a company that specialises in on-site reduction of industrial sludge of removal and disposal, was chosen by tender process to carry out the desludging project. They are a small part of a huge team of scientists and engineers involved with the work in progress . The site is located on the R44, opposite to the Somerset Mall. The Paardevlei lake which is at the centre of the site measures 45ha.
The property was originally home to AECI's Somerset West operations.
During the 1990's AECI's property arm Heartland started a huge clean-up operation in order to prepare for the new development on the property.
Philip Muller led a team of desludging experts from JPS Contractors in taking an estimated fifty thousand cubic meters of dried sludge from the vlei that contained an original volume of 1 million cubic meters of water and sludge. This represented a 80% to 90% reduction of solids by mass when the contract only required 50%. This sludge was dried on site and disposed of.
Once completed, the plan is to create a Cape wetland as close to pristine as possible.
The western side of the vlei is where waterfront shops, restaurants and residential units are envisioned. A boardwalk is likely to encircle the rest of the vlei which will be approximately 50ha in size, about the same size as 50 rugby fields. This large area of pristine wetland will offer the residents wonderful opportunities to do bird watching or go for walks in magnificent surroundings.
