When you flush the loo where does it go ?? Well, if you live in Pietermaritzburg, it finishes up here.
Built in the 1950s the Darvill Waste Water Treatment Plant handles about 60 million litres of raw sewage every day. That’s a lot of flushed loos……
Sadly though, during the rainy season, because of flaws in the stormwater drainage system, this volume can rise to about 200 m/l a day and Darvill cannot cope with the extra volume, sometimes leading to overflows of untreated sewage into the Msunduzi River.
Darvill used to be run by the municipality, but Umgeni Water took over its operation in 1992, mainly because it was seen as the single biggest potential source of pollution to the Umgeni River catchment.
Located about seven kilometres east of the city centre, Darvill collects and treats all the domestic and industrial wastewater from Pietermaritzburg.
Treated water is poured back into the Msunduzi River, which then flows into the Umgeni River and Inanda Dam, the main fresh water source for the Durban area.
As the population of Pietermaritzburg increases so does the volume of raw sewage that has to be treated. The plant is therefore going through a huge upgrade to cater for the volumes expected over the next 30 to 40 years.
But all is not smelly human excrement around here, there is also a Bird Sanctuary that because of the wetlands that are used to final filter the treated water before it goes into the Msunduzi River, attracts an amazing array of indigenous and visiting birds.
There are also large meadows nearby irrigated by the treated water, hence the cache name.
This cache is available without entering the Works and is at 602m AMSL.
Well done to Team_Bateleur for the FTF