KZN Firm Lands R21.7m Contract To Rehabilitate Nacala Dam - The Mercury , Wednesday, July 1 20
A Pietermaritzburg firm of consulting engineers, Jeffares & Green, has signed a $2.7 million (about R21.7m) contract with Mozambique to carry out rehabilitation on the Nacala Dam, the main supply of water to the country’s Nampula province.
Tenders for the dam, which is in a state of disrepair, had gone out internationally.
The contract would permit the augmentation of the capacity of the dam to 21 million cubic metres, benefiting around 70 percent of the population in the Nacala area.
Currently, the dam has a capacity of 14 million cm³ of water and supplies 20 percent of the population, according to Jeffares & Green.
“The project will investigate several key aspects.”
“The first will be to determine the condition of the dam to check its safety factors.”
“The second will be to raise dam capacity to increase its yield and to provide additional water for environmental purposes,” said Andy Pepperell, a director of the firm.
“The third will be to redesign and reconstruct the dam spillway to ensure it is fully compliant with international dam safety requirements. The feasibility study started in June and construction is expected to commence towards the end of 2010,” Pepperell said.
The firm would be assisted on the project by two main sub-contractors, Lamont, of Zimbabwe, and Conseng, of Mozambique.
The hydrology, geotechnical engineering and environmental services will be undertaken by Terratest, a specialist associated company of the firm. The team would consist of 34 engineers and hydrologists altogether.
Social and environmental specialists would also be assigned to the project which would be undertaken in three phases – feasibility studies, followed by the detailed design and tendering process, and construction.
Work on the dam was expected to cost $11.7m (about R93.6m), while expanding the Nacala water supply system would take a further $10m and reconstruction of the waste water collection system $17.2m.
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