Paddadam – Stumbling blocks or stepping stones?
Some members of the community are hard at work, optimistically working towards the common goal of restoring the Paddadam to its former glory. Others see more obstacles than benefits.
ACCORDING to Doug Grewar, the driving force behind the rehabilitation of the Paddadam, the result of last Tuesday’s meeting was somewhat disappointing.
“Plenty of other suggestions about increasing the size of the car park and starting botanical gardens were made,” says Mr Grewar. “These are all good and well, but we must focus on the primary project that we have in hand and not get deviated.”
Pessimists see stumbling blocks, while optimists see stepping stones. It seems that some are slightly skeptical, whilst others are excited about the progress of the daunting task.
He furthermore added, “Our project is to clean the Paddadam by removing all silt, rubbish, reeds and Kariba Weeds this month, not next year, and to achieve this we need manpower and machines or the money to hire them.
“All those who are prepared to assist please do so.
“Many thanks and God bless all those who have helped get us this far.”
The first move was to cut the drain through the dam wall, install a culvert and backfill up to road level. This has been done.
The second move was to cut a side drain along the full length of the south side of the dam to facilitate the drying out of the reeds area. This has been done, although it needs to be cut a bit deeper in certain sections.
The third move is to remove about 250mm of silt from the dry area near the dam wall. William Black is already driving in there and loading black soil for sale to his customers so the mud is pretty well dried out.
The fourth move is to cut cross drains at intervals through the reed beds to connect with the south side drain. This will speed up the dewatering and drying of the reed areas between the cross drains.
“To do this, we need a tracked excavator and gumpoles to form a track for it to walk on without chance of sinking. This is not rocket science,” states Mr Grewar, “I have done this before in my 50 plus years of construction, civil engineering and earthmoving experience and it is a straightforward procedure.”
Progress is ongoing at the Paddadam and several companies are coming to the party, as it were, to lend a hand and help speed up the process. According to a post on the AbaQulusi Residents Association on Facebook, the water is draining faster now.
Most of the heaps of dead wood left by the AbaQulusi Municipality people who had cut down some of the trees, have been burned.
Albert Willemse visited the site and promised to cover the wages of two casual labourers for a month as his contribution to the cause. “Pieter Colloty will be coming on Monday with his TLB and we might also get some help from Mazcon, so that should help progress.” says Mr Grewar.
“We must remove the dried mud near the dam wall before any heavy rains,” he adds, “otherwise it will wash into and block up our culvert and outlet drain and all our work will be wasted.”
In a request to the public who are looking forward to seeing the Paddadam restored to its former glory, Mr Grewar reiterates: “We still need more manpower, machines or money to hire them. Please, whatever you can contribute, please do so.
“Even if you pitch up with a black bag to collect bottles and cans and remove them it will be a welcome contribution.”
