Budget constraints are an underlying cause of the catastrophic water outage in East London last week. This has emerged in a report drawn up by acting Buffalo City Metro municipal manager Nceba Ncunyane.
The Umzonyana purification works, which suddenly failed last Monday, have been undergoing a stop-start series of upgrades over several years, many of which are still in process.
The technical report on the outage reduced the likelihood that mayor Alfred Mtsi’s suspicion – that the plant was deliberately vandalised in the heat of a Samwu strike – would stand.
The report, which was signed off by Ncunyane, was due to be discussed at last Thursday’s city council meeting. The meeting was abandoned shortly after starting over fears that Samwu members were marching on the City Hall.
Ncunyane said the failure was only “possibly due” to a vandalised and a stolen sampling tap.
According to him, their “multi-year phased” approach to upgrading the works was “due to budget constraints”.
In the last three years, there has also been a shift away from using local engineering firms.
It is clear from historical reports and an engineering source, who asked not to be named for fear of losing government work, that some of the critical upgrade work was started by a firm that subsequently left the picture. The work was taken up again by a Netherlands-based multinational engineering company, Royal Haskoning DHV.
This company, which is now responsible for the entire upgrade, describes itself as “a leading, empowered South African-based, independent, international consulting engineering and project management group” and says it is in the top 10 independently owned, non-listed firms in the world.
The engineering source spoke of the departure from the project of at least three local engineering firms, some with solid historical knowledge of the 100year-old plant.
However, last week BCM spokesman Thandy Matebese provided the Dispatch with a detailed spreadsheet provided by the water and sanitation department on the progress of the upgrade.
The sheet shows that the much-needed inlet works to assist the troublesome failure-prone siphon pipe, are under construction and only 45% complete.
The spreadsheet states that completion of the inlet works, plus construction of new chlorine and flocculent storage and dosage facilities and a “security fence”, are tied up in a tender bid evaluation committee run by BCM’s supply chain management unit. BCM believes the work needed to complete the job will only start in the next financial year.
However, construction of a vital new 2km-long 1 200mm-diameter downhill (gravity-fed) pipe and canal, which will bypass the holding dam and supply raw water from Bridle Drift Dam directly to the treatment plant, is only earmarked for “implementation in 2017-2018”.
Ncunyane said some of this work was also done during the flurry of emergency repairs last week when a 900mm pipe was installed to link up to the canal.
Matebese also said construction of a new inlet works, with a dam intake tower and stilling basin, which will create another link between the holding dam and the works, is only “45% complete”, at the tender evaluation stage due for implementation in 2016-2017.
However, following last Monday’s crisis, repairs to some of this work was attempted, and now the project is “70% complete”, according to Ncunyane.
Details were sketchy and it is not known how far they got with this work.
Water woes due to budget constraints
The Umzonyana purification works, which suddenly failed last Monday, have been undergoing a stop-start series of upgrades over several years, many of which are still in process.
The technical report on the outage reduced the likelihood that mayor Alfred Mtsi’s suspicion – that the plant was deliberately vandalised in the heat of a Samwu strike – would stand.
The report, which was signed off by Ncunyane, was due to be discussed at last Thursday’s city council meeting. The meeting was abandoned shortly after starting over fears that Samwu members were marching on the City Hall.
Ncunyane said the failure was only “possibly due” to a vandalised and a stolen sampling tap.
According to him, their “multi-year phased” approach to upgrading the works was “due to budget constraints”.
In the last three years, there has also been a shift away from using local engineering firms.
It is clear from historical reports and an engineering source, who asked not to be named for fear of losing government work, that some of the critical upgrade work was started by a firm that subsequently left the picture. The work was taken up again by a Netherlands-based multinational engineering company, Royal Haskoning DHV.
This company, which is now responsible for the entire upgrade, describes itself as “a leading, empowered South African-based, independent, international consulting engineering and project management group” and says it is in the top 10 independently owned, non-listed firms in the world.
The engineering source spoke of the departure from the project of at least three local engineering firms, some with solid historical knowledge of the 100year-old plant.
However, last week BCM spokesman Thandy Matebese provided the Dispatch with a detailed spreadsheet provided by the water and sanitation department on the progress of the upgrade.
The sheet shows that the much-needed inlet works to assist the troublesome failure-prone siphon pipe, are under construction and only 45% complete.
The spreadsheet states that completion of the inlet works, plus construction of new chlorine and flocculent storage and dosage facilities and a “security fence”, are tied up in a tender bid evaluation committee run by BCM’s supply chain management unit. BCM believes the work needed to complete the job will only start in the next financial year.
However, construction of a vital new 2km-long 1 200mm-diameter downhill (gravity-fed) pipe and canal, which will bypass the holding dam and supply raw water from Bridle Drift Dam directly to the treatment plant, is only earmarked for “implementation in 2017-2018”.
Ncunyane said some of this work was also done during the flurry of emergency repairs last week when a 900mm pipe was installed to link up to the canal.
Matebese also said construction of a new inlet works, with a dam intake tower and stilling basin, which will create another link between the holding dam and the works, is only “45% complete”, at the tender evaluation stage due for implementation in 2016-2017.
However, following last Monday’s crisis, repairs to some of this work was attempted, and now the project is “70% complete”, according to Ncunyane.
Details were sketchy and it is not known how far they got with this work.
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