uTongathi-Hazelmere pipeline approved
The pipeline will add around eight to 15 million litres per day.
With Hazemlere Dam at only 34.62 percent as of this morning, there is also good news in the pipeline.
Umgeni Water corporate stakeholder manager Shami Harichunder announced yesterday that the laying of a 7.5km pipeline to pump water from the uTongathi River into Hazelmere Dam has been approved.
Earlier this month Harichunder told the Courier that the level of the Hazelmere Dam continues to drop by one percent every six to seven days due to consumption and evaporation caused by high temperatures. He said that once the dam reaches dead storage at 15 percent the raw water in the dam is no longer usable or becomes expensive to treat.
In order to prevent this from happening Umgeni Water was exploring three main augmentation initiatives to pump more water into the Hazelmere Dam and prevent a future repeat of the current water shortages – the abstraction of water from the Tongathi River being one of them.
The pipeline was said to carry this water to a river that flows into the Hazelmere Dam.
“The tender will be finalised today and a contractor appointed by this afternoon,” he said on Thursday.
Construction will start on February 9 and is estimated to be completed by the end of March this year.
The pipeline will augment Hazelmere Dam by around eight to 15 million litres per day.
“This is not a complete solution and we still need a lot of rain,” said Harichunder.
