Civil Engineering June 2022 | Vol 30 No 5

14 June 2022 Civil Engineering T he bulk supply scheme will deliver water along five development corridors – the Mqanduli, Libode, Ngqeleni, Nqadu and Airport Corridors – radiating out some 30 km to 40 km from Mthatha in the King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD), Nyandeni and Mhlontlo Local Municipalities. The Mqanduli Corridor extends as far as KuGxwalibomvu and Mahlathini in the south and Qwe Qwe and Qunu in the west. The scheme draws from the Mthatha Dam, located some 6 km north-west of the Mthatha CBD. At 250 Mm 3 the dam is large – the same size as Midmar Dam in KwaZulu-Natal – and is very much under- utilised. It was constructed to release water for two peak power hydro-electric schemes on the Mthatha River owned by Eskom, but which are no longer functional or needed. The dam therefore usually overflows every summer, and the Department of Water and Sanitation has granted OR Tambo District Municipality a Water Use Licence sufficient to supply 1 million people. The areas around Mthatha are cur- rently supplied by many small, rural sur- face and borehole water supply schemes which frequently dry up or fail. The introduction of a reliable regional water supply scheme is therefore expected to be a key enabler for accelerated urbanisation and economic activity along the develop- ment corridors. There will also be sig- nificant health and social dignity benefits for those people who are still currently reliant on polluted rivers and springs. With residents seeing the construction of the primary bulk infrastructure going on, there is already an explosion of new formal and informal house building in the area in anticipation of the scheme being officially commissioned. Mthatha Bulk Regional Water Supply Scheme takes shape Anton Nel Pr Eng Electrical Design Engineer GIBB anel@gibb.co.za Duncan Shaw Pr Eng Technical Lead: Water GIBB dshaw@gibb.co.za Sipho Mlilo Pr Eng Design Engineer: Steel and GRP Pipelines Amathonga siphomlilo85@hotmail.com Victor Dube Design Engineer Amathonga victor.dube@amathonga.co.za A regional bulk water supply scheme to provide a safe, reliable and sustainable water supply to over 1 million people in the rapidly growing Mthatha City and the surrounding towns and villages is now well advanced. THORNHILL WTW 85 Ml/d HIGHBURY WTW 50 Ml/d LIBODE CORRIDOR SIGNAL HILL UPGRADE TO 115 Ml/d Figure 1 Schematic of phase 1 (primary bulk infrastructure) of the Mthatha Bulk Regional Water Supply Scheme Mqanduli Corridor Airport Corridor Complete Under construction Tender Design Legend Mthatha Central ignal ill Zamukulungisa FT Gale P P P Abstraction 220 Mℓ/d P P hornhill 85 Mℓ/d pgrade to 1 5 Mℓ/d ighbury W 50 Mℓ/ P P P P Rosedale Command Res. Nqadu Corridor Ngqeleni Corridor Libode Corridor FSL 693 m Mthatha Dam 45.5 Mℓ/d 3.1 Mℓ/d 68.5 Mℓ/d 46 Mℓ/d