With no sign of promised funding from the national water department to complete the key Nooitgedacht phase three water treatment works, the metro has stepped in with an innovative do-it-yourself plan.
Work has already begun on the plan which will see an extra 70Ml of water allocated from the Gariep Dam being pumped through a new bypass pipe up to a reconfigured Grassridge reservoir to be treated and then channelled via Motherwell and Chelsea to all points of the metro. Situated near Addo, Nooitgedacht phases one and two already treat 140Ml of Gariep water for the metro.
But the new allocation cannot be treated there because phase three has to be completed to provide the necessary capacity – and with no funding, work has come to a standstill.Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip is concerned and upset about the matter.
“Water and sanitation minister [Gugile Nkwinti] told us at a meeting in Port Elizabeth on July 9, convened for all the municipalities in the Sarah Baartman district, that he was committed to funding and completing Nooitgedacht phase three,” Trollip said.
The minister had also called on the metro to try to reduce its demand on the western supply dams of Kouga, Churchill and Impofu which also feed towns in the municipalities of Kouga and Koukammma, Trollip said.
“We are playing our part in this regard – but there has been no sign of that funding, which is crucial to us.”
The supply of bulk water was a responsibility of the national water department, he said.
The metro’s director of water and sanitation, Barry Martin, said work on the site by appointed contractor Stefanutti Stocks had stopped two months ago, due to non-payment by Amatola Water, which is funded by the national water department.
“The contractor is in suspension until all outstanding invoices have been paid.
“The contractor is claiming standing time of R50,000 per day,” Martin said
With a budget of R318m, the project was launched in May 2017 and was due to be completed in March 2019.
It is only 30% completed. The Grassridge treatment plan would work fine as long as no problems arose – in which case there would be no storage back-up, Martin said.
“So we really need that Nooitgedacht phase three as a long-term solution.”ALSO READ