R110-million botch-up with raising of Hazelmere Dam wall

The four-year and R110 million project to raise the wall of the Hazelmere Dam – the North Coast’s main water supply reservoir – has been a failure.

This was revealed by Siza Water officials during recent meetings of the district and local municipalities to discuss their Integrated Development Plan (IDP).

Officials said the raised wall was not stable enough to handle the additional water volume and as a result water had to be let out.

The initial project, commissioned by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) to raise the dam wall by seven metres following the 2014 drought and water restrictions, which would double the capacity of the dam.

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Water availability to the North Coast would have been increased by some 10 million cubic metres a year, to address the increased demand for water caused by urban and industrial development.

The project also included the installation of gates on the dam’s spillway and the stabilisation of the wall.

The system’s water is mainly used for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes with the supply area of the dam extending from KwaDukuza in the north, to Groutville, Blythedale, Ballito and Verulam in the south.

On October 17, 2011 DWA appointed Ingérop South Africa (ISA) as consulting engineers for the raising of the wall. Group Five Coastal were the appointed contractors on the project.

The department was given a budget of R110 million to raise the wall.

However, disputes between DWS and Group Five over late payments and quality of the finished work led to the contract being terminated last year.

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This has been further complicated by the fact that Group Five was placed in business rescue in March this year.

DWS is understood to be suing Group Five for not completing the project.

The project was initially scheduled for completion in August 2017 but was extended to February 2018. DWS will not have to invite tenders for a new contractor to complete the project.

Plans to bring in a new contractor to complete four percent of the remaining work at the Hazelmere Dam project could cost an extra R100 million.

Attempts to get comment from DWS were unsuccessful at the time of publication.

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