On 9 and 10 February, Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu, supported by his two deputy ministers, David Mahlobo and Dikeledi Magadzi, is undertaking a working visit to the Western Cape.
The ministerial programme includes a visit to the Overberg Water Board’s Duivenhoks water treatment plants in Heidelberg and Napier on the 9th and the official launch of the Brandvlei Dam canal feeder on 10 February.
During these working visits Mchunu will be able to get first-hand information about the water resource augmentation projects in the Western Cape.
These include the greater Brandvlei scheme, which consists of two state-owned off-channel dams, Brandvlei and Kwaggaaskloof (which receive water from the Breede River), and is part of Mchunu’s priority projects for the Western Cape.
The project entailed increasing the height of the wall of the feeder by 300 metres over a 4 km stretch, enabling 33 million cubes of additional water to be stored.
The structurally lifted canal will increase water flow to the dam, contributing to increased irrigation activity, which will in turn boost the agri-economy of the Overberg.
The Napier wastewater treatment works, located within the Cape Agulhas municipal area, is currently under construction. This was funded by the Department of Water and Sanitation’s water services infrastructure grant (WSIG) to the tune of R24 million.
The project is set to unlock industrial and housing development to benefit locals in the area.
The Duivenhoks system extracts raw water from the Duivenhoks Dam and Duivenhoks River close to the Heidelberg municipal area. The raw water is treated at the Duivenhoks water treatment plant and supplied to the surrounding farming towns, including Heidelberg.
The capacity of the Duivenhoks water treatment plant is 5,0 megalitres per day and the current allocation from the Duivenhoks River to Duivenhoks system is 1 232 megalitres annually.
