Good rains wasted as work on Hazelmere drags on
● Millions of litres of water are being wasted as a multimillion-rand extension to the Hazelmere Dam wall — meant to double the dam’s capacity — remains incomplete four years after it was announced.
Instead of storing the heavy rains that fell this week, problems with the construction of the wall meant water was released into the Mdloti River.
Department of water & sanitation spokesperson Sputnik Ratau confirmed this, saying water was being released “not to compromise the infrastructure” and as a “safety measure”.
The Hazelmere project, announced at the height of the drought in KwaZulu-Natal in 2016, was to raise the wall by 7m, increasing the dam’s capacity from 23.9-million cubic metres to 43.7-million cubic metres.
This, water & sanitation said in June 2016, would “increase water availability to the north coast region … by some 10-million cubic metres per annum”. The project was estimated to cost about R110m. It was scheduled to be completed by June 2017, but this was pushed back to late 2018.
Ratau said the budget for the project was now R530m. “The R110m was not including all required project components,” he said, adding that there was no new deadline for completion. He said the project was “96% completed”.
“The outstanding work causes the dam to be operated at a lower level to ensure the safety of the structure. However, it should be noted that the safe level is higher than the original full supply level and thus not compromising storage in comparison with the original design. The current operating storage level is below the new full supply level but more than the original design. The department is in the process of getting agreements in place to ensure the completion of the last 4% of the work,” he said.
Group Five was appointed the contractor on the project, and Ratau said that having the company appointed to complete the last of the work was being handled by the Treasury. Group Five did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment.
Water authority Umgeni Water said on Friday that Hazelmere was 41.1% full, up from 33.47% a week earlier.
Dams on the south coast are overflowing.
Nungwane Dam went from 84% full to 97.1%, Umzinto Dam from 56% to 100.45%, and EJ Smith from 78.55% to 100.19% within six days.