Transforming local government wastewater departments — From adversary to industrial partner

The need to remove nutrients from wastewater by biological means and dispose of sludge by-products in an efficient manner has prompted the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council to adopt a new approach to the management of industrial discharges. Giving a rebate on the normal discharge tariff will encourage the discharge of industrial effluents having a high readily biodegradable concentration (which would assist the BNR process). Those effluents having high concentrations of heavy metals (which would degrade the reuse value of sludge by-products) would be discouraged by means of an additional penalty above the normal discharge tariff.