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The water supply venture was supported by the
feasibility study requested by the Chris Hani District
Municipality in June 2002. The findings and
recommendations of the study were presented by
Camdekon Consulting Engineers in April 2004 and
provided options for domestic water supply in the
Insika Yethu Municipal (IYM) area in the Chris Hani
District.
During the feasibility study, the team worked closely
with GIS consultants in order to extract maps of the
area. “We started the project by studying
topographical maps of the region so that we could
establish the boundaries to the local municipality and
at the same time collect vital information that was
required for input into the system,” says Vumile Jack,
Camdekon Civil Engineering Technician.
“Information on existing water schemes and additional
data from other consultants are then accumulated so
that the water infrastructure can be planned.
Information is usually received in hard copy and then
input into Civil Designer, an interactive software
package that incorporates a suite of civil engineering
modules.”
The production of supply network and water scheme
drawings is completed with the use of AllyCAD, an
industrial 2-D strength CAD program that provides
essential functionality through its operational
simplicity. “I find the program to be very easy to use
and there are many shortcuts that allows one to
complete projects quickly and effectively,” says
Vumile.
Groundwork exploratory analysis on the area is done by
SRK consultants, who investigates the area’s ground
water in order to establish if there is sufficient
water to develop the proposed water supply schemes for
the region. The study depicts how much water each
borehole produces, as well
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as the extent and number of potential well field
areas. The investigation specifically looks at the
estimated yield so that all information pertaining to
the area’s potential water wealth can be summarized in
map format.
Area information accumulated, revealed that there are
14 potential ground water schemes with approximately
3-5 boreholes per scheme. This equates to about 40 to
70 boreholes that pump to reservoirs. In terms of the
ground water potential, the exploration program
identified target zones where boreholes of yields in
excess of 1,5 litres per second can be expected. The
target zones are geographically favourable for the
development of well fields in undeveloped areas.
In addition to this, the district has adequate surface
water resources particularly toward the east where
runoff riverflows are able to supply domestic and
stock needs. “Four large dams are located in the area
with reserve capacity to supply all domestic
requirements, while a few perennial springs with
yields of up to 5 litres per second were identified.”
“These dams were constructed for irrigation purposes
and are largely underutilized with only one dam being
used for domestic water supply. Agriculture is a major
economic activity in the area and these irrigation
schemes are therefore being developed with a total
planned irrigated area of 10 000 hectare,” explains
Vumile.
According to Vumile, the use of CAD software was
instrumental in the completion of the project as it
allowed large amounts of information to be imported
for the creation of detailed drawings with minimum
effort. The existing schemes should be completed by
the end of 2007, while new schemes are planned for
completion by 2015. |
