POLOKWANE – Lepelle Northern Water (LNW), the entity contracted by Polokwane and the Capricorn District Municipality as a Water Services Provider of bulk water supply, recently took some stakeholders on a trip to observe first hand the challenges and current and future recovery plans.
Water supply to Polokwane has been interrupted often during the last couple of months, negatively affecting provision of the services by the respective municipalities.
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There are certain tasks that do need urgent attention, such as the processing of servitude applications, the upgrade of bulk power supply by responsible institutions, environmental impact assessments and applications for environmental authorisation, for instance.
One of the first tasks at hand is to register all LNW schemes as national key points as a result of the increase in community interference in the supply of water.
Cases have been opened with the police.
The 10 Ml package plant that will release a further 6 Ml to Polokwane/Capricorn is 95% complete and the entity is working closely with Eskom to finalise it.
The Tzaneen Municipality will be engaged to upgrade the power supply line supplying Ebenezer for stability.
The Specon bulk pipeline is currently refurbished, and the original contract duration of six months was extended due to delays.
The initial completion date was end March 2018, but the new date is 12 November 2019.
Challenges experiences were leave application from the Roads Agency Limpopo (RAL), materials procurements, payments and community unrest.
The second phase of the Specon bulk pipeline refurbishment comprises 3Km replacement of the pipeline.
The consultant was appointed on 8 May 2016 and the estimated design completion date is 23 October 2018. The contract will be awarded by early January 2019, with an estimated completion date of end September 2019.
The pipeline does not have a registered servitude and that has to be rectified.
The work space for the pipeline is limited as the pipeline lies in the reserve of a proposed RAL Road D4065 and adjacent to demarcated residential stands. Detailed geotechnical investigations were delayed due to community protest challenges.
The upgrade of the Olifantspoort and Ebenezer water schemes need to be done with the aim to increase the capacity of the bulk water supply infrastructure to meet the water requirements of the entire supply area over a 20 year design horizon.
The entity is looking at fast-tracking immediate and short term projects at the Olifantspoort scheme, to upgrade the bulk power supply to Olifantspoort water treatment works (WTW) and booster pump stations, to upgrade the Olifantspoort Weir raw abstraction works, the construction of an off-river storage dam near the Olifantspoort WTW and to look for partnerships for long term projects for funding.
Water demand and unauthorised connections and vandalism need to be addressed. The refurbishment and upgrade of the Olifantspoort WTW and pump station as well as the refurbishment and upgrade of the bulk water transmission infrastructure from Olifantspoort WTW to Polokwane and intermediate Regional Water Schemes, refurbishment and upgrade of trunk main and branch line reservoirs are also in the pipeline.
At the Ebenezer plant the bulk electricity supply needs to be upgraded urgently, as well as the water treatment works and pump station, and refurbishment and upgrade of the bulk water transmission infrastructure from Ebenezer WTW to Polokwane and intermediate Regional Water Schemes need to be attended too.
The estimated construction period is five to seven years and construction is estimated to start mid 2019. A business plan need to be drawn up and money requested from national Treasury.
