Durban - A pipeline – which will carry up to 15 million litres of water daily to the Hazelmere Waterworks – will start operating by the end of March.
This would go a long way in alleviating the water troubles of the northern parts of the province – even though water still needed to be used sparingly, said corporate relations manager for Umgeni Water, Shami Harichunder, yesterday.
“The level of the Hazelmere Dam was sitting at 34 percent but only 19 percent of that water is usable because once the dam reaches 15 percent of its capacity, it reaches its ‘dead storage’ phase where it becomes too difficult and too expensive to treat,” he said.
He explained that the Hazelmere Waterworks treatment plant treated 45 megalitres (or 45 million litres) of water a day to supply the eThekwini and iLembe municipalities.
“If we continue processing water at this rate, as we have been, the water will only last 165 days, up until July 2015,” he said.
The lack of rain in spring and summer, despite Durban usually experiencing the bulk of its rainfall during these seasons, has already contributed to the dire situation.
“After February, we enter autumn, but that is when the weather experts predict rain. This is outside of the rainy season.”
Harichunder said it was for this reason that they had decided to implement the emergency augmentation scheme which would see water from the uThongathi River being pumped to the dam.
“A 7.5km pipeline, made up of steel or a combination of steel and plastic depending on the construction company, complete with a pumphouse, will be built to allow between eight and 15 megalitres (million litres) of water to enter the dam everyday,” he said.
Tenders for the contract were awarded yesterday.
“Work will start immediately, by February 9, and we want it to be commissioned into use no later than the end of March,” he said.
The project is believed to cost R35 million.
He maintained that while this would assist embattled residents of the area, water still needed to be used sparingly.
“This is just a short-term solution and not the ultimate answer.
“In the long-term, we are expecting to begin construction on the extension of the dam wall so its capacity is increased.”
Another long-term project to secure water supply was that of the Lower Thukela Backwater Scheme which would supply water from Mandeni to Ballito. The R2 billion project will ultimately supply 110 megalitres a day of potable water to residential areas to the north of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal.
It has the capacity to provide 55 megalitres a day.
Ilembe District Municipality Mayor Welcome Mdabe said after a municipal council meeting on Wednesday that the levels of rain had not been enough to fill dams and other catchment areas.
After the meeting, when asked about the status of water levels in the district’s reservoirs, Mzobe said in an interview that the water issue was still a concern although the council had come up with some relief measures.
He said last month the council engaged Tongaat Hulett in a discussion around pumping water from the uThongathi River.
“The previous government had given Tongaat Hullett a court order for the right to have control of the river since they have sugar cane plantation along the water source.
“Tongaat allows us to pump 10 million litres of water a day from the river.
“We are still working on how this will be done. We understand that running a mill requires a lot of water, so we will take that into consideration because those mills contribute to the GDP.
“In the meantime, we are looking at pumping about 26 million litres of water a day from Umvoti River into Hazelmere Dam. This will be done in September,” Mzobe said.
According to Mzobe, there had not been a change in all the affected areas supplied by the dam. These areas include Sea-tides, Waterloo, Ballito, oThongathi (Tongaat) and Umhlali. Late last year, Umgeni Water recommended iLembe District, eThekwini Municipality and Sembcorp reduce water usage by 30 percent.
Sembcorp Siza Water supplies water to the Dolphin Coast area.
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