Floods set back progress made in restoring Tongaat water supply
The weekend's heavy rain will delay the restoration of the oThongathi water treatment plant by up to nine days, says Tongaat Hulett.
Earlier this month sugar producer Tongaat Hulett agreed to manage the repair process at the treatment plant in conjunction with eThekwini municipality.
Tongaat Hulett’s head of communications, Virginia Horsley, said on Tuesday morning that a contractor had been appointed to repair the syphon dam’s damaged wall and raw water supply pipe at a cost of about R15-million.
“Unfortunately the site was again impacted by the weekend’s heavy rainfall and it is anticipated this will delay the project by between six and nine days. The contractor is working seven days a week to ensure the access road to the treatment works is reopened as quickly as possible,” said Horsley.
“The work over recent weeks has progressed well with the contractor having made significant progress in cleaning the existing culvert through which the water travels, and refilling both sides of the culvert to form a dam wall on which the road will be built.”
The eThekwini municipality said major repairs were expected to take months at an estimated cost of R30-million.
As an interim solution, the municipality had intensified water delivery through additional water tankers, and more static tanks would be added to the current 42.
Gift of the Givers meanwhile established boreholes and Amatis donated a package plant.
The public was cautioned that water from boreholes and the package plant was not suitable for consumption, but rather for other uses such as toilets and washing.
Following the laying of an emergency water supply pipeline from the Nyaninga reservoir to the Tongaat south reservoir in the Chelmsford and Buffelsdale area, the municipality said necessary linkups were completed on May 16.
The municipality is reconfiguring the existing system for the new pipeline to receive water at Tongaat south reservoir.
Access to piped water supply is expected to be available within the next few days for the following areas that feed from this reservoir: Watsonia, Buffelsdale, Mithanager, Trurolands, Gandhinagar, Chelmsford Heights and part of Tongaat’s central business district.
Supply to Tongaat south was achievable due to the design of the reticulation system and the proximity of an existing water point.
The municipality advised that supply to these areas would be intermittent as it must ration supply from the Nyaninga reservoir: Areas affected are King Shaka International Airport, Dube Tradeport Agrizone, Mount Moreland and Shortlands.
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