BREAKING NEWS: Dredging of Cape Town’s Zeekoevlei set for June

The City of Cape Town’s Spatial Planning and Environment Directorate said that the dredging of Zeekoevlei will start in June 2025.

“The project team is making great progress with the preparations for this major operation that will take about two years as part of our efforts in improving the water quality of the waterbody,” the City said.

Zeekoevlei is located in the False Bay Nature Reserve, a Ramsar site of international importance for wetlands.

“A few days ago, I visited Zeekoevlei to see how the contractor was progressing with the preparations for the dredging work. They were busy welding the final sections of the slurry pipe at the site where a long section was already floating on top of the vlei, in the vicinity of Storm Bay, where the first dredging will commence,” said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.

“The access roads to the Cape Flats Waste Water Treatment Plant are ready, and at the dewatering or drying ponds the work is also on track.”

Two sections of Zeekoevlei will be dredged: first Storm Bay and thereafter the contractor will move to the section known as Home Bay.

The dredged material will be pumped with a slurry pipeline from Zeekoevlei to dewatering ponds where the sediment can dry out.