The completed Hazelmere Dam Wall extension will bring millions of extra cubic metres (m³ ) of water security to KZN’s North Coast.

The project was officially commissioned by Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina last Friday, bringing to an end the nine-year, R820m process which saw the wall raised by seven metres.

As part of the project, the world’s highest piano key weir system was implemented, which has a special spillway designed to withstand hours of extreme water conditions during floods.

The project was not without delays, however, both in the initial wall construction and the later relocation of families living in the dam basin. The latter delayed the dam from reaching full capacity after the wall was practically completed last year.

A final relocation was finished a few weeks ago, however, and the dam is now safely able to reach its new capacity of 37.1 million m³ – an increase of over 55% on the dam’s original 23.9 million m³ capacity.

That original capacity when the dam was built in 1977 had become far less in practice as a result of sedimentation, and it was estimated at only 13.7 million m³ in 2007. The wall raising is therefore good news for large parts of the North Coast which are supplied by water from the dam’s water treatment works, including within the Siza Water Concession Area and across the iLembe District Municipality. Parts of eThekwini, including Tongaat, also get water from the dam and it is among the North Coast’s most important public utilities.

The role of the municipalities in ensuring water supply remained stable was highlighted by Minister Majodina at the opening on Friday.

“The Department of Water and Sanitation upgraded the Hazelmere Dam wall to meet the needs of the increasing population in the North Coast as it is our role to ensure bulk water supply. The concerned municipalities should now roll up their sleeves to ensure that water is directed to households.”

Majodina said her department is looking at ways to intervene in municipalities that underperformed with water provision. In iLembe, for example, 46% of water bought by the municipality was lost before reaching the consumer in the last financial year. Majodina said water provision had to be managed at every step of the process, from bulk infrastructure projects like Hazelmere, down to fixing leaks and cutting off illegal connections.

But extra water supply certainly helps and Hazelmere was sitting at a comfortable 79.7% at the time of publishing.

Live data on the dam level is available here.