Nandoni plant to be upgraded

By Silas Nduvheni and Andries van Zyl

A glimmer of hope might be on the horizon for residents in the water-starved Vhembe District, with the announcement that the upgrading of the Nandoni Water Treatment Works will start in November this year. The project is expected to be completed in October 2028 and will add an additional 60 megalitres per day into the water-distribution system.

During a stakeholders meeting held in July at the Mphaphuli Tribal Council, some details of what the upgrading will entail were made available. Mr Berlin Molepo, the chief engineer of water services and planning at the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation, said that the Nandoni Dam had been completed in 2004 and officially opened the next year. The water treatment plant was completed in 2008, with the capacity to handle 60 megalitres per day.

“The dam currently supplies water to the communities in the Vhembe District Municipality and is intended to supply Mopani and Capricorn districts in Limpopo, targeting an estimated population of over a million people,” he said.

He mentioned that the upgrade to 120 megalitres per day will feed the bulk water pipeline projects that the Department of Water and Sanitation is implementing to extend the supply from Nandoni Water Treatment Works to the Malamulele, Vuwani, Elim, Makhado, and Sinthumule Kutama areas.

In documentation made available during the session, it is stated that the dam is classified as a Category 3 dam, with a capacity of 164 million cubic metres, meant to supply water to an estimated 1.1 million residents.

Even though the water treatment works is currently operating almost at full capacity, it supplies water to only 72 out of 207 villages. The demand is for more than 100 megalitres per day. Phase 1 of construction will be the new works, while phase 2 will include the refurbishing of the old plant, and the repair of existing site infrastructure and buildings.

The proposed upgrading of the water-treatment plant was welcomed by community leaders present at the stakeholders meeting. Vhamusanda Mashonelo Tshimange said they had struggled for many years without access to clean drinking water. He was optimistic that the situation might change once the new plant was operational.

The executive mayor of the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM), Freda Nkondo, also welcomed the plan to upgrade the Nandoni plant. She said it would bring water to many residents in the region who did not have access to clean water. She also expressed her concern over incidents where residents are vandalising infrastructure such as pipelines, which causes many people to have no water.

However, while the Nandoni Dam may be in line for an upgrade, large parts of the region remain waterless. Many blame the water problems on the VDM’s utter incompetence and are doubtful that the situation will improve soon, unless urgent intervention comes from the national government.

In Louis Trichardt, the VDM has been unable to supply water to large sections of the town for more than a month. In outlying areas, such as Sinthumule and Kutama, many residents have just about given up any hope of seeing water flowing from the taps in their yards. It seems as if the VDM has also given up on trying to explain why there are interruptions in the water supply.

On Tuesday, the Democratic Alliance’s local councillor, Pierre Smalle, escalated the matter to the chairperson of the National Assembly's Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, Mr Leon Basson. In the letter, he complains that VDM does not even respond to questions, with the last official update being on 31 July when they notified residents of the sudden shutdown of the water supply to Louis Trichardt and Tshikota.

According to Smalle, the current issues include the fact that the Albasini raw water plant, the main water supplier to Louis Trichardt, is currently pumping at less than half of its capacity. “Several leaks have been reported on the pipeline, with the main three leaks reported to be at the raw water plant itself, between Beja and farm Takala, and at booster pump station 3,” Smalle stated, adding that the booster pump stations were not fully operational, and few or no backup motors were functioning.

Smalle also highlighted that 13 boreholes were scheduled to be pumping water into the water supply system by this year, but only two were currently operating. “This alone was a R40-million plus expenditure. If fully operational, it can supply the town [Louis Trichardt] with more water than the Albasini line at full capacity,” Smalle told Basson.

According to Smalle, the Albasini raw-water plant can be connected to the new Nandoni pipeline, and Louis Trichardt can receive water from Albasini if the work on the short stretch of pipeline is fast-tracked.

Smalle said he hoped to pressure the portfolio committee to also hold VDM accountable and visit Vhembe for inspections to see why the crisis could not be resolved.

Date:09 August 2024

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