The City of Cape Town’s Water and Sanitation Directorate spent R155.5-million on acquiring 176 new and upgraded trucks during the 2024/2025 financial year.

The directorate says the fleet acquisition is key to ensuring reliable, efficient and sustainable water and sanitation services citywide.

Of the 176 vehicles procured, 71 are replacing old and redundant vehicles, while 105 are additional vehicles to enhance existing fleet capacity.

Some of the new high-tech additions include a crane truck for pipeline maintenance, burst pipe repairs and valve/meter replacements; a jet-machine truck with a 7 000-l capacity (upgraded from previous 5 000-l models); eight water tankers (10 000-l capacity) to supply communities during water outages; two vacuum combination-unit trucks with a total capacity of 14 000 l (9 500 l for sewage and 5 000 l for potable water); as well as nine super-sucker trucks, each with a 12 500-l capacity, able to vacuum 200 l in six seconds using a 60-m pipe.

“These trucks are being deployed to our Reticulation and Informal Settlements Basic Services branches to improve turnaround times for service requests,” says City of Cape Town Water and Sanitation MMC Zahid Badroodien.