City of Tshwane Cllr Cilliers Brink and the City of Aarhus mayor Jacob Bundsgaard officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) photo by Dimakatso Modipa
The City of Tshwane and the Danish City of Aarhus officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday to improve working relations and collaboration on various projects in the water management field.
The Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already allocated R33 million towards a collaborative project to improve Tshwane’s water security.
The signing of the MoU will enable further support and collaboration in the upgrade and maintenance of wastewater treatment infrastructure, such as Rooiwal and other facilities.
The MoU was signed by the Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Cllr Cilliers Brink, and the Mayor of the City of Aarhus, Mr Jacob Bundsgaard. Among guest were city manager Johann Mettier, City of Tshwane MMC of Utilities and regional operations and coordination Themba Fosi, Ambassador of Denmark Elsebeth Sondergaard Krone, city director of Aarhus Martin Ostergaard and officials of Tshwane and Aarhus.
Executive Mayor of Tshwane, Cllr Cilliers Brink said the MOU will also seek additional funding for Rooiwal upgrades.
“Our city faces many water challenges, such as in Hammanskraal and other parts of the city, therefore, it is important that we work with other world-class cities and learn from them so that we can build a capital city that works for its entire people.
We have been working together on very important water project and this partnership between Tshwane and Aarhus has come quiet a long way.
“We got a common interest in water conservation, water demand management with the City of Aarhus,” said the mayor.
“Tshwane has got the issue of Rooiwaal waste water treatment plant but we also face the reality that we live in a water scares country.
“Therefore, we have to devise ways of using water more elegantly.
“We are delighted to sign the MOU and we are looking forward to developing expertise and exchanging knowledge.
“This project will form part of the change in our water management as a city,” Mayor Brink said.
He said this partnership is not about the money but the transferring of expertise and there has been funding but the money would not be paid over to the city of Tshwane.
The funds will go directly to the project. There is also technical component, and we are going to have to find development funding to do the work we need to do at Rooiwaal and in obtaining that funding we are going to have to get some critical contributions, expertise and believe this partnership along with other partnerships will be helpful in doing so.
The mayor also said, “we will make sure we fix the problem of Hammanskraal water and do it in the time frame that was initially communicated,” he said.
Mayor of the City of Aarhus, Jacob Bundsgaard said there is a long-standing corporation between the two cities.
“We are really proud to have this corporation with the city of Tshwane we take pride in our water system, and this is very fruitful for us, and this partnership will benefit both cities,” he said.