As part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s intensive water supply augmentation plans, Acting Mayor Councillor Thsonono Buyeye led a site visit to the Coegakop Wellfield and Water Treatment Works on Wednesday following the commencement of construction work at the much anticipated plant.
This comes after the project experienced some delays due to contractual grievances recently. However, Phase 4 of the Coegakop Wellfield and Water Treatment Works which is also the last phase of the multi-million-rand project finally started in May and is progressing at a commendable speed.
During the site visit, Mayor Buyeye said: “This project is key for us as we will be able to extract as much water as we possibly can from underground sources, as we continue to address challenges in the City. The prolonged delay in the project has set us back as a City in our water shortage challenge.”
“We had to deal with a lot of negativity when it comes to this project and even answer in Parliament as to why there were delays. So for us to come here and see progress, that gives us hope. This is what we want to see, we don’t want any further delays now. We want the project managers to know that we will be closely monitoring their progress and make sure that deadlines are met.”
Mayor Buyeye was joined on site by Infrastructure and Engineering portfolio head Councillor Andile Lungisa and the NMBM departmental Executive Director Walter Shaidi.
The project is valued at R260 million and will produce 26 megalitres a day to augment the current water supply sources of the NMBM once completed in 2022. The Water Treatment plant under construction will also play a vital role in treating additional water from boreholes across the City to produce a total of 50 megalitres a day for residents.
NMBM Senior Director: Water and Sanitation, Barry Martin said: “We have drilled quite a number of production boreholes already. We know where the water is and we are now test pumping these holes to exactly find out, because our licence application is for 26 megalitres per day, but each hole will be test pumped to see the amount of water we can get out of it.”
“The treatment facility is here because the ground water here is high in iron and manganese: the treatment facility will take the iron and manganese out of the water to comply with our drinking water standards. We will not build the plant where the water will be treated.”
The project is expected to lift some burden off the Nooitgedagt Treatment Works as 26 megalitres will now be abstracted from the plant to augment water supply from the western dams, which feed the Greenbushes area. A total of 100 Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) will benefit from an estimated R65 million of the project funding
Once completed, the Coegakop Wellfield and Water Treatment Works will be the largest Biofiltration Plant in South Africa.
NMB Communications
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