Address by Ms. Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister of Water and Sanitation during the launch of the Lower Tugela Bulk Water Supply Scheme under Ilembe District Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal held at Nced’omhlophe Stadium, Sundumbili Township
Kwazulu-Natal, like many parts of the country has in the recent past experienced serious drought conditions. Water scarcity in the province has forced the Department to develop multi-stakeholders partnerships that include the Water Sector Support (KZN), the Water Regulation & Use (KZN), ILembe District Municipality and Umgeni Water Board to effectively mitigate the challenge.
Based on the demand for water on the KwaZulu-Natal North Coast, and in particular the coastal areas of the ILembe District Municipality, and coupled with the requirement for potable water supply to rural backlog areas along the coastal belt, there was a dire need for a new potable bulk water supply scheme with a source on the uThukela River and supply to the ILembe District Municipality.
The population to be served to reduce backlog is 18 366 people with 20 091 people receiving water from augmentation of existing schemes.
The total number of people estimated to benefit from this scheme is 585,900 within the area bounded in the north by the Thukela River, in the South with the boundary of eThekwini Metro just south of Ballito, on the east by the Indian Ocean and on the west by the areas of uMshinathi, uMvoti, Nkandla and Umlazi.
Local municipalities within iLembe DM to benefit from the scheme are Kwa-Dukuza and Mandeni. Of the population to be served, 209 859 are indigent people.
The scope of works can be broken down into two components; which are the Umgeni Water Bulk (KNR017) and the Ilembe District Municipality Secondary Bulk (KNR011), and both are on the Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) funding programme.
For ease of construction and in order to meet intermediate project deadlines the Umgeni component has been split into six separate contracts as follows:
- Contract A1: Civil Works for the Construction of the 55 Mℓ Water Treatment Works.
- Contract A2: Civil Works for the Construction of the Weir, Abstraction Works and Access Roads.
- Contract B: Mechanical, Electrical and Instrumentation for Pump Stations, Abstraction Works and the Waterworks.
- Contract C: Civil Works for the gravity main from Mvoti Reservoir to the Command Reservoir in Mandeni.
- Contract D: Civil Works for Rising Main and Command Reservoir.
The ILembe DM component consists of 13 off-takes (Secondary Bulks) that tie into the Umgeni Water Primary Bulk Pipeline. These off-takes consist of Bulk pipelines, Pump stations and Reservoirs.
The first phase of the Umgeni component is due for commissioning by May 2016. The first phase is designed to produce 55ML of potable water per day. The design however is such that it is relatively easily upgraded to a 110ML plant.
The ILembe component completion is dependent on the funding allocation, but at current progress and allocations, completion will be in the 2019/20 financial year.
The number of job opportunities created in this project to date is 1163.
Some of the Challenges experienced in the project are:
- In the previous financial year some pipelines were sub-divided to smaller Contracts to accommodate emerging contracts for the Ilembe component.
- These emerging Contractors have had difficulties completing their Contracts as they only rely on incoming cash flow to complete the work. Some have gone across to this financial year with their Contracts still unfinished and this has caused significant challenges.
- This resulted in the Water Service Authority (WSA) having their budget reduced last financial year as well as this financial year.
- Supply Chain Management (SCM) delays in awarding of new contracts have also contributed to the delays to the programme.
- The current greatest concern is that the Primary Bulk will be producing potable water after May, yet all of the Secondary bulks will not be ready to fully utilise this additional resource.
