Second Enviros Plant in South Africa Successfully Commissioned
Client: eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, DSW (Department of Cleansing and Solid Waste)
Commissioned: February 2004
Location: Mariannhill Landfill, eThekwini (Durban), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
The Mariannhill Landfill, receives between 550 and 700 tons of solid waste each day and is a “new generation" lined landfill, having been opened in July 1997.
Mariannhill landfill currently generates approximately 30 cubic metres of leachate each day, with the potential to discharge up to a sustained flow of 50 cubic metres per day. Mariannhill serves the disposal requirements of the Western reaches of the eThekwini Municipal Area, and is expected to be in operation for another 14 years.
The landfill was located to text-book standards, being well screened from the public eye by the natural topography, and the established growth of numerous large trees in the peripheral buffer zone. The site is believed to be the only operational landfill in South Africa to have achieved National Conservancy Status.
 The leachate treatability trials which were conducted, in a joint research and development programme between Enviros and DSW from October 1998, demonstrated that Mariannhill Landfill leachate may be treated to high standards, within the limits of the discharge standards required by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF, General Authorisations in terms of Section 39 of the National Water Act, 1998) for discharge of wastewater by irrigation. The findings of the treatability trials have thus allowed DSW, in association with Enviros (UK) to design the full-scale leachate treatment plant at the Mariannhill Landfill.
This is the second full-scale South African leachate treatment plant. Both plants have demonstrated that the aerobic biological SBR process can be considered to be an appropriate and effective leachate treatment option for leachates at landfills in South Africa.
Both the Vissershok (Cape Town) and Mariannhill (Durban) leachate treatment plants have shown that, at full-scale, leachate has been successfully treated in both the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
Mariannhill LTP Construction Photographs
 Left: A view of the Main SBR Aeration Tank with formwork in-place for concrete casting. To the left is the thatched control room, and the current landfill cell can be seen behind.
 Right: A view of the reed bed which has been terraced into the hillside below the leachate treatment plant.
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