SRCC
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has announced the date for the closure of the Lower Sundays River Canal for ten days for rehabilitation work to be undertaken.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Municipality said the canal would be closed from 24 June to 4 July, with the scope of the work entailing the dewatering of canal, excavating and demolishing the old existing concrete canal panels both upstream and downstream, and removing spoilt material and backfilling with new material.
They said in a joint statement with the Department of Water and Sanitation, that the major domestic users that would impacted by the shut-down would be the towns of Kirkwood, Addo, Paterson and Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (NMBM).
"Kirkwood will be supplied from the Main Canal, which will remain charged in its upper reaches, and Addo and Paterson will be supplied from the Caesar’s Balancing Dam, which will be filled prior to canal shutdown."
Nelson Mandela Bay would now get its water supply from the Church, Elandsjacht and Loerie Water Treatment Works to partially compensate for the reduced water output from the Nooitgedacht Water Treatment Works.
"The reduced demand of the Nooitgedacht WTW will be supplied from the Scheepersvlakte balancing Dam for the duration of the canal rehabilitation. The Loerie and Scheepersvlakte Balancing Dam will be filled to 100% capacity before the shutdown commences."
This is while 110Ml/day abstraction from Scheepersvlakte dam will be decreased to 70 ML/day to accommodate the 10-day dry period. The 70ML/day will be augmented from the Kouga/Loerie system.
The Department of Water and Sanitation said it had consulted extensively on the planned shutdown, to bring all its stakeholders on board and for them to plan for this period and inform their customers.
DWS said it also continues to hold meetings with these stakeholders to discuss action plans to mitigate any possible challenges and bottlenecks as the planned shutdown gets implemented.
"The rehabilitation work to be carried out is critical for the reliability and sustainability of supply to the users. If the damaged canal is not repaired, the water scheme will be at risk of collapse."
