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A lot of joy and hope were generated at the formal handover of  the Valdezia- Mowkop project designed to bring water from the Nandoni Dam to the communities of Makhado. Third and second from right are the executive mayor of the Vhembe District Municipality, Cllr Tshitereke Matibe, and the mayor of the Makhado Local Municipality, Cllr David Mutavhatsindi. Cllr Matibe shook hands with the Department of Water and Sanitation's construction site agent, Mr Siya Maneli, while the stakeholders looked on.

Pipeline will hopefully secure water by 2016

Date: 31 October 2014 By: Linda van der Westhuizen

The official handing over of the project to finally connect the Mowkop reservoir in Makhado (Louis Trichardt) with the Nandoni Dam, on 24 October, was a joyous occasion.

The Nandoni water scheme was completed in 2005. The dam itself has a capacity of 164 million cubic metres. Nine years later, however, many communities have yet to enjoy a single drop of water from this dam, as the completion of the pipeline connecting them to the dam seems to drag on forever.

The launch of the 30km pipeline from Valdezia to Mowkop took place at pump station 3 along the Levubu Road. The Valdezia-Mowkop project is, however, only scheduled to be completed in 2016. Communities that will benefit from the joint project between the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) and the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) are Elim, Vleifontein, Makhado (Louis Trichardt), the maximum-security prison, Tshikota, Sinthumule, Kutama, AFB Makhado and Tshitale. The cost of the Valdezia-Mowkop project is R513 million, secured from RBIG and MIG grants.

The executive mayor of VDM, Cllr Tshitereke Matibe, and the mayor of the Makhado Municipality, Cllr David Mutavhatsindi, spoke at the event and both acknowledged that this project had been overdue for many years. “The people of Makhado, Kutama, Sinthumule and Elim want water. They are waiting for this project.  Rendeals 4 and DWS, you have 18 months. Delays should exclusively be due to natural causes, to something that can’t change, like the weather. Don’t delay for another second or minute,” Cllr Matibe said. DWS Construction (from the Department of Water and Sanitation) will be the contractor on the project. Cllr Matibe said afterwards that the reasons for the years of waiting were several court cases and the securing of money for the project.  

The Valdezia-Mowkop project includes about 30km of steel pipeline, as well as a suction reservoir and a booster pump station. The suction reservoir is designed to store the unbalanced flow pumped over 20 hours, which equates to a reservoir with an active capacity of 7.5 megaliter. “The booster pump station will be a big station where we are standing (near the R523) and it is aesthetically well designed as far as pump stations go,”  Rendeals 4 Consulting’s head of civil engineering, Mr Pieter Louw, said. The first 2.3km of pipeline from Valdezia will be DN800 steel in diameter (800mm), the next 14.6km  pipeline up to the suction reservoir will be DN750 steel, while the last section to Mowkop is 12.7km long and the diameter is DN700 steel. This is significant since parts of the pipeline that had been previously constructed with the so-called glass-reinforced pipes could not handle the water pressure and resulted in a drawn-out legal battle.

Another two court cases prolonged the water-supply process. Two times the companies that constructed the new reservoir at Mowkop had to be fired and court cases followed. “The plan is that the two reservoirs at Mowkop will be joined under a separate tender,” said Louw. The existing reservoir at Mowkop has a capacity of 12 megalitres (Ml) and the new one will have a capacity of 10Ml. 

Rendeals4 gave the probable water requirements for the different areas “for the 2030 design horizon".  The Makhado (Louis Trichardt) urban area will require 12,5Ml per day in 2015, 13.8 Ml in 2020 and 16.3Ml in 2030.  Sinthumule Kutama  will require 8Ml (2015) then 10,3Ml (2020) and about 16Ml in 2030. All demand areas together will require 32.4Ml  in 2105, 37.4Ml in 2020 and 49.3Ml in 20130, which would indicate an ongoing expansion and upgrading of the bulk infrastructure.

 
 
 

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Linda van der Westhuizen

Linda van der Westhuizen has been with Zoutnet since 2001. She has a heart for God, people and their stories. Linda believes that every person is unique and has a special story to tell. It follows logically that human interest stories is her speciality. Linda finds working with people and their leaders in the economic, educational, spiritual and political arena very rewarding. “I have a special interest in what God is doing in our town, province and nation and what He wants us to become,” says Linda.

 
 

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