Raising of dam wall gets go-ahead

The department of water and sanitation (DWA) has given the proposed raising of the Hazelmere Dam wall the green light for construction to start in April this year.

This is according to DWA strategy steering committee (SSC) member, Di Jones who attended an SSC meeting on Wednesday, February 25 in Durban.

The 24 month project will increase the dam’s gross storage capacity from 23.9 to 43.7 cubic metres, almost doubling its current size.

The increased size of the dam will augment water supply to the North Coast and sustain irrigation downstream of the dam, thus contributing to quenching the insatiable thirst of the fast developing Dolphin Coast.

Jones said although the project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) obligations have been met, she is concerned that no social consultation has yet been done.

“No information is currently available regarding what will happen to the people who live below the line of where the new water level will be when the dam fills up,” said Jones.

She said nobody at this stage is able to give a finite line of what the new water level will be and the community has not yet been informed of the coming changes.

“Nobody knows if they will be relocated or what is going to happen,” she said.

Jones went on to say that this was fortunately not a fatal flaw that would halt the project but was something that would definitely have to be looked at.

Meanwhile construction of the proposed pipeline between the Uthongathi River and Hazelmere Dam has already started but has suffered a two week setback due to unforeseen delays in the process of awarding the contract.

Umgeni Water corporate stakeholder manager, Shami Harichunder, said last month that the 7.5km pipeline will be finished by the end of March but it will now only be finished by mid-April.

“Preparatory work in the form of site excavation has begun on the pipeline project and the target date for completion is mid-April 2015,” said Harichunder.

Harichunder however gave assurance that Umgeni Water would try their best to complete the project by the set deadline.

The emergency pipeline is expected to pump eight to 10 million litres of water per day from the Uthongathi River directly into Hazelmere Dam to help meet the water demands in the area while there is a water shortage.

The Dolphin Coast area is believed to use about nine million liters of water per day.

Latest measures indicate that the dam is currently 47.9% full, with winter around the corner.