Cape Town - Plans are on track to upgrade the Manenberg Canal, which spans more than three kilometres.
The investment aims to improve inland water quality through added sediment and litter traps to reduce pollution, as well as structural interventions to mitigate flooding as part of the City’s Water and Sanitation capital projects.
The estimated R50 million project is in the final stages of the detailed design phase, with construction planned to start in November 2025.
The Manenberg Canal is located within the Salt River catchment area, and comprises two distinct canals, namely Silverstream Canal and Vygekraal Canal.
Each of these canals have smaller canal appendages. The main function of the canal is to convey stormwater and surface runoff from the surrounding urban areas of Surrey Estate, Manenberg and Gugulethu, into the Vygekraal River.
This then discharges into the Salt River Canal and later into Table Bay, north of Cape Town’s city centre.
The total length of the canal earmarked for upgrade is 3.35km.
Work will include constructing sediment and litter traps to collect unwanted waste, as well as replacement of the existing canal to an upgraded open canal.
Currently the canal is a concrete-lined low-flow channel, situated within a grass high-flow channel.
Mayco Member for Water and Sanitation, Zahid Badroodien said: “The planned upgrades are part of the recommendations following a conditional assessment, which determined that there were large amounts of solid waste in the Manenberg Canal, coupled with other challenges such as extensive deterioration of the concrete panels and dense vegetation along sections of the watercourse impeding flow.”
A third of the stormwater infrastructure in and around the canal was also found to be in a compromised functional and structural condition.
The first round of public participation was conducted in March 2023, where the City held meetings with affected communities in wards 30 and 46.
Residents were introduced to the objectives of the project and had an opportunity to give input into the possible interventions that the City was considering to address the challenges at the canal.
All comments received were taken into consideration when finalising the concept designs.
On 21 and 28 September 2024 another round of public participation meetings took place to give a progress update and present the final detailed designs.
“Upgrading the Manenberg Canal is essential to improving living and environmental conditions in the area. Widening the canal and the advancement of the structural design will ease flow and has significant advantages, especially when combined with measures to prevent waste from travelling further down the catchment.
“The benefits derived by the community not only include flood risk mitigation, but also improved quality of the stormwater that enters the Vygekraal River,” Badroodien said.
“Residents are reminded that correctly disposing of litter in refuse bins or at solid waste collection centres directly benefits the City’s waterways.
“Dumping in rivers, canals or littering within their surroundings is hazardous. It is a major factor in the costly and persistent challenges faced in managing water quality in the urban environment,” said Badroodien.