Emergency water scheme projects trickles slowly

WHILE good progress has been reported on the upgrade of the Lake Mzingazi water works, there is no sign of any construction headway on the Tugela Transfer drought emergency scheme.

The Lake Mzingazi system is expected to be fully operational this week after tests were conducted on new supply lines and a refurbished pump system.

This as millions of litres of water have overflowed from the lake daily following excellent rains earlier this year.

However, with the region in the grip of a severe drought, construction has not yet commenced on the doubling of the pipeline capacity from the Tugela River to Goedertrouw dam, which remains at a critically low level.

The contract between the Department of Water and Sanitation and Aecom, who successfully tendered for the R407-million Tugela Transfer Scheme (TTS) turnkey project, which will double the transfer rate from the present 1.1m3 per second to 2.4m3 per second, still remains unsigned.

As a result, the application to Eskom for the additional power supply required for the project cannot proceed.

ALSO READ: Tugela transfer upgrade delayed

Project completion and delivery of water was initially aimed for November this year, but given an estimated 12 months construction period once the formalities are completed, this will not happen before the end of 2018.

The drought is still very much impacting on the water crisis as the City of uMhlathuze remains on Level 4 restrictions.

Industries continue to be compliant with their restrictions – in some cases using less water than allocated – but water demand will increase in October as the agricultural sector takes its allocation.
Unless good summer rains fall, the situation will worsen.

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