Hello all
In as much as package plants are definitely useful in the Cape Town case, they are known to produce extremely varied influent water quality necessitates plus they need a requirement of high operational expertise and care (NATIONAL DRINKING WATER CLEARINGHOUSE,1997). Inversely, that generally nullifies the low cost and automation benefits of package plants. Additionally, one of the common challenges is that package plants might not be able to handle different kinds of pollutants (Peter Chilto, 2023). But there is a bright side to the story! Package plants are designed to require the least amount of daily maintenance in order to decrease equipment operation requirements. Their manageable size, affordability, relative simplicity of use and unattended operation design are other key benefits. When operated and maintained by competent individuals, these plants are capable of eliminating bacteria and turbidity from surface waters (The National Drinking Water Clearinghouse, 1995).Although the use of package plants is of noble intention, isn’t it important to also consider the expenses and time incurred while setting them up?Now we begin to address the elephant in the room by carrying out a cost-benefit analysis.
1. Are these plants helping people even though they are expensive to not only set up but also operate in the long run?

2. Are they just being used as a temporal solution to buy the municipal more time to implement their project?

3. Do the package plants take away the sense of urgency from the main municipal sewerage project to be implemented?

4. Could it be that the use of package plants is also the main reason as to why the upgrades to the main WWTW is delayed?
What do you think?

There is a famous quote by Charles R. Swindoll that says “Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.”

We wrote a blog recently discussing Cape Town city council's stance on onsite sewage treatment plants (OSTP) .

Cape town offers developers temporary use of package plants, during the upgrades to the main WWTW. Vacant properties have already been approved, including the sewerage connection, but are now told that they cannot connect, for perhaps 3 - 4 years.  These projects are now stalled. So CoCT offered a lifeline, saying that package plants will be allowed for the period of WWTW upgrades, but will need to be removed once municipal sewerage connection is available. Then the package plants must be disconnected.

The costs of some of these systems run into millions, and this is a huge impact on the developers costs.

If CoCT were to allow OSTP systems to stay, the saving of water and its reuse, would have been hugely beneficial.