It could be another two years before the expansion of multimillion-rand water project the Nooitgedacht low-level scheme is finally completed.
The project – looked to as the saviour for the crippling drought and for future water security – has been hampered by several construction delays on phase three, the final phase.
This is due to non-payment of the contractor, rendering the project in limbo for months at a time.
Situated near Addo, Nooitgedacht phases one and two already treat 140Ml of water a day from the Gariep Dam for Nelson Mandela Bay.
The final phase will add a further 70Ml a day.
The financial woes of the national water and sanitation department have prompted the implementing agent managing the Nooitgedacht project on its behalf – Amatola Water – to ask the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to use some of its own money to cover some of the costs of consultants.
The city is thus taking R15m from various other infrastructure and engineering budgets to contribute toward the Nooitgedacht costs.
Amatola Water CEO Vuyo Zitumane said the physical work was currently sitting at 37% and that the contractor had suspended work on numerous occasions due to delayed payments as a result of financial constraints.
“The delay in payment [to the firm] has been as a result of a high backlog of outstanding prior financial year invoices from the department of water and sanitation. [The department] has since paid all the outstanding invoices.
“The other delay is as a result of consultant AfriCoast that moved off site because they were not paid by the municipality due to procurement matters which have since been resolved,” Zitumane said.
In May 2017, then minister of water Nomvula Mokonyane said her department would fund the third phase of the water scheme expansion to the tune of R318m.
The department then appointed Amatola Water as the implementing agent and the project was set to be completed by March 2019.
However, due to payment delays and the contractor downing tools, the deadline is now October 2020.
A report to the infrastructure and engineering portfolio committee states that Zitumane wrote to municipal manager Johann Mettler, asking for the city to fork out the money for the consultant and that the water body would pay for the construction costs.
The request, according to the report, was approved by Mettler on June 18 and is currently being finalised by the bid adjudication committee.
The department of budget and treasury said that no money was set aside for phase three during the budgeting process.
“The understanding was that phase three was funded by the department of water and sanitation, with the implementing agent being Amatola Water,” the report read.
Zitumane said when Amatola Water received a directive to implement the project, the metro had already appointed the professional service provider.
“The process to conclude the transfer or ceding the contract was found impractical, therefore the metro was requested to continue with the payment of the professional service provider.”
She said that R129m from the department was for the current financial budget allocation.
However, the budget versus the cashflow of the construction contract is not sufficient to execute the planned scope for the financial year.
Zitumane said: “This has resulted in reprioritisation of the scope to accommodate the available budget.”
Infrastructure and engineering director Lauré Pieterse confirmed the phase three contractor was on site but work was moving slowly due to limited funding made available by the water department, which amounted to R25m.
“At this stage, we don’t have any additional funding but unfortunately it’s moving slowly and much more funding is needed to complete the project,” Pieterse said.
Infrastructure and engineering political head Andile Lungisa said the metro had the capacity and capability to run the project as it had proven by completing phase one and two of the Nooitgedacht scheme.
“Our attitude is we have internal capacity of running the project on our own and not via Amatola Water.
“The national government must just channel the money straight to the metro and we must implement that project ourselves.
“If you come with the R20m that has been given to the contractor, you’ll simply do nothing . . . the money which needs to be deployed is not less than R300m.
“If you conduct big projects you need big amounts or else the project will collapse instead of completing the process,” Lungisa said.