The Western Cape Government’s Department of Human Settlements  is  upgrading the densely populated (28,64 hectares), Kosovo Informal Settlement in Cape Town South Africa, which is home to around 14,500 people  . Increasing the availability of formal, affordable housing serviced with a water and sewerage system will improve living standards for the community.

During the project, smaller areas surrounding the Kosovo Informal Settlement are being developed, for which the bulk services being upgraded are also required. The residents will be moved to these developments, while the main area of Kosovo is redeveloped. In joint venture with MPAMOT we are undertaking planning, detailed design and construction monitoring services for the internal and bulk external water and sewer infrastructure for 5,000 new housing opportunities.

Increasing capacity, enabling sustainable development

The benefits of the project extend beyond the boundaries of the settlement. Upgrading the bulk water and sewerage systems will ensure sufficient capacity for Kosovo, and it will also alleviate constraints on capacity in the areas the infrastructure will pass through. With more capacity available, land around the services can be opened up for development.

The upgrade is far from straightforward, though, as the bulk sewer runs as deep as 8m below the surface in the built-up areas it passes through beyond Kosovo. Open excavation would have proved difficult in such an environment, so we evaluated an alternative proposal from the contractor to use micro-tunnelling – calling on WSP’s global network to seek input from colleagues with experience of the technique. The work to thread the1,650mm diameter pipe through a micro-tunnel around 2.2km long is the most extensive use of this approach in South Africa to date.

Tackling a project of this size with a demanding schedule – the work is due to be completed by March 2022 – required us to be resilient and agile as a team. Throughout we have focussed on the most important thing: by planning and designing this vital infrastructure, we will be helping to improve living standards for a local community.