Page 142 - Bulletin 18 2014

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The first years of the century became the busiest period in Stewart’s life. Apart from the

dams under construction, less well-endowed municipalities such as Rondebosch and
Woodstock were looking to locate water sources in the Hottentots-Holland Mountains.

Stewart tramped the catchments and the valleys and made extensive surveys, and discovered
two excellent sites in the Steenbras and Wemmershoek Rivers, which would see development

in later years. For the time being, however, the little authorities did not have the financial
resources to implement the schemes and nothing could be done until thirst caused the

amalgamation of the seven minnows to form the consolidated Cape Town City Council in

1913.

Wynberg however was self-sufficient in water because of Stewart’s mountain reservoirs, and

could not only afford to thumb its nose at the merger, but to embark on an ambitious
sewerage scheme. Cape Town had recently completed a successful scheme based on a sea-

outfall, but Wynberg, with no coastline, had to go for a totally new concept for South Africa -
a land-based treatment works. And who else to design it but their tried and trusted consultant,

Tom Stewart!

Despite not having worked in this sphere before, he produced a scheme which the Council

preferred to those of the experienced overseas experts, Dunscombe and Pritchard. The
treatment works was located in the area between Grassy Park and Prince George Drive

(which was still to be built), more or less where the Klip Road cemetery now stands. It was
claimed in an engineering publication of the day that there was now “a prospect of the

sewage farm being rendered unnecessary; or at any rate will be greatly reduced in size, while

sludge, the bete-noir of all precipitation works will cease to exist.” Stewart, the prudent
professional, merely reported these claims without undue comment, but the Town Clerk, Mr

J. B. Munnik was more forthcoming: “Under this system there will be no smell or any
unpleasantness… It is just like standing on a tank of ordinary water.” In 1903 Wynberg

Municipality became the proud owners and operators of the first municipal sewage treatment

works in South Africa.

The Town Clerk was however disappointed in his expectations. The works did smell, and the
site proved totally unsatisfactory (and, a hundred years later, engineers are still looking for a

satisfactory way to get rid of sludge!) Wynberg took an option on a piece of State ground