EXCLUSIVE: Assembling of Zeekoevlei dredger underway

The City of Cape Town’s Spatial Planning and Environment Directorate said that the components of the floating suction dredger have arrived at Zeekoevlei in the False Bay Nature Reserve over the weekend.

The project team is now busy assembling the machine, and if all goes as planned, the dredger should take to the water at the end of this week for testing.

“I am very pleased to say that all is on track for the dredging of Zeekoevlei to commence by mid-June 2025. The components arrived over the weekend, this in itself was quite an operation, and in coming days the dredger will be assembled and once ready, tested on the vlei,” said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.

“We are celebrating some huge milestones with this project: the last time the City dredged a vlei was 42 years ago, in 1983, when parts of Home Bay were dredged. Then, this will be the first time ever the City will be using a floating suction dredger to dredge organic rich sediment from the vlei bed. Normally, dredging is done by crane from the water’s edge, but given that the two sections to be dredged are located far from the edge, the City will be using a floating pontoon instead.”

Zeekoevlei is located in the False Bay Nature Reserve, a Ramsar site of international importance for wetlands. The City is also accredited as a Ramsar City.

Improving water quality is a key international commitment which is aligned to the Mayoral Priority Program (MPP): Sanitation and Inland Water Quality MPP. the City said.

Over the past decades, there has been a significant build-up of sediment and nutrient rich organics in the Zeekoevlei lakebed that has resulted in algal blooms, which has been impacting the overall health of the vlei and its water quality for recreational users.