“I have no faith in anything that was said here today because they have been promised to us before to no avail. I promise you that this time next year we will be having this same meeting again,” these are the words farmer, Barrie Williams said at the stakeholder engagement meeting held by the Department of Water and Santitation on Tuesday.
The meeting was held at the Tzaneen Show Grounds as a method of discussion and engagement of all stakeholders that use water from the Tzaneen Dam.
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One of the prevailing issues that arose and came to light as the center of the meeting was that of raising the dam wall.
Chairing the meeting was Councillor Given Malatji of the Mopani District and alongside him was the ward 14 Councillor, Pierre Cronje and the Chief Director of Infrastructure Development, Steven Arumugam.
“This is the first meeting that we are having as the department of water and sanitation with stakeholders. It is something that is long overdue but we are here now and trying to devise on what to do with regards to the raising of the dam wall,” stated Arumugam during the opening of the meeting.
He further stated that the project is well underway with construction being done to demolish the existing dam wall.
Speaking on the current status of the project, Chief Engineer of the project and of every other project of this magnitude, Thabo Hloele presented on the budget and procurement processes that needed to be followed by all the parties involved in overseeing that the dam wall is raised as per government agreement.
“We understand that there may have been promises made in the past regarding the issue that has brought us here today, however what everyone needs to understand is that the department will be taking over the project. We had a kick-off meeting on the 20th and since then contractors have been deployed to start with construction around the dam wall. Procurement measures will be done by December this year and a commencement will start as of January 2020,” explained Hloele.
He made mention that this was due to the fact that they have already lost out on two months of the project, as they had planned to start with it in April.
“A project like this needs about 18 months in total to complete it. That is why we anticipate that by August 2021 it will be completed. The delay has impacted negatively on us as 26% of storage of the dam has been lost. But as work now progresses, impounding will also occur but this will only be through the go-ahead from the assigned professional who will be monitoring work progression,” Hloele further exclaimed.
As a means to get all the relevant stakeholders involved, the Chief Director of Infrastructure Development stated that councillors will be responsible for communicating dates and times of all meetings that will be scheduled to take place.
“The problem that I personally have as a ward councillor is that the community wants to complain but never wants to come to these meetings. So we need to devise an action plan because people may lose out o vital information that will affect them directly with the implementation of this project,” explained Cronje.
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Concerns that were raised were regarding the regulation of water with the duration of the project, the current structural problems, what will happen if there is an overflow of water for two months and the budget that has been allocated and already used for the project.
“The department decided to step in after having seen that there has been a loss of 40% capacity to the dam wall. The dam flow will be regulated and some seasons may be harsh on some farmers. What we should understand is that the raising of the dam wall is a positive things as it will allow more water to be stored and a better distribution of water. We have a 600 million rand estimated total project expenditure to which at the moment a sixth of the money has already been spent,” explained Arumugam.
