Hermitage water treatment plant to be refurbished |27 February 2014

The Hermitage water treatment plant will be refurbished, the Minister for Environment and Energy, Professor Rolph Payet, said yesterday.

The minister was speaking after visiting the plant at the start of a series of visits that he intends to undertake to all the companies and sections that falls under his ministry.

Minister Payet was accompanied by the Public Utilities Corporation’s (PUC) chief executive Phillip Morin and his management team.

The minister got to see the different stages that the water goes through before being distributed to the public.

“My visit is the first in a series of visits I want to do with the staff that fall under my portfolio. I promised the staff of PUC last year that I will visit them in their work place and today I have decided to visit the Hermitage treatment plant,” Minister Payet said in a press conference after his visit.

During his visit Minister Payet noticed that the environment around the Hermitage premises was taken good care of and he acknowledged it when he met the PUC staff after his visit.

He had the chance to listen to the staff’s concerns and opinions to better improve the service that the PUC gives to the public.

He also noticed that the equipment was outdated and he announced that it is in his ministry’s plans to refurbish the treatment plant.

“The visit was very enlightening; it is the first time that I return since my last visit as a student. With the refurbishment being planned we are hoping to change the equipment with new technologies that will reduce the risk that the old equipment poses to the staff,” Minister Payet said.

Minister Payet felt that the PUC has well maintained the equipment as the majority of them are about forty years old.

The refurbishment of the plant, which will be financed by the soft loan that the government has been granted by the European Investment Bank, will cost the government 2.2 million euros.

After the formal process and the approval of the plan to refurbish the Hermitage treatment plant, it will take about one and half years to complete the work.

Meanwhile PUC announced this week that a major project initiated last year to carry water from three rivers to the La Gogue dam has been completed.

The aim of the project, which has cost around R37 million (and not R37,000 million as erroneously reported in our issue yesterday) is to increase the volume of water entering the La Gogue dam.