Empangeni - Work has begun in earnest for laying the 31km water pipeline that will supply water to the area of Dlangezwa near the University of Zululand (Ongoye) in Empangeni in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
The R22.2-million waterworks were launched on Friday and it is expected to take 10 months to finish, just when the Mhlathuze Water board completes its multimillion-rand Nsuze water scheme near the N2 freeway.
The Nsuze water scheme is being built to add water capacity in the entire Richards Bay–Empangeni zone after population and business growth suffocated it, resulting in frequent water cuts.
Among the areas that have experienced water cuts in the last few years are the densely populated township of eSikhawini, parts of Dlangezwa and Madlankala.
Launching the scheme and assigning Ibutho Construction to undertake it, the mayor of the City of uMhlathuze (Richards Bay–Empangeni), Xolani Ngwezi, said more than 205 households in Dlangezwa stood to benefit by having a stable water supply.
“Starting from December, we expect this project to be done by October next year and this is a long-awaited water project by this community.
“We expect the contractor and us as the municipality to meet all the requirements to get this project delivered on the specified time,” Ngwezi said.
Ngwezi allayed fears that the pipeline was likely to be another white elephant where there was infrastructure for water but no running water.
“We are going to get water delivered here through these two schemes (Nsezi) and lake Cuphu.
“The question now is have we started work at Nsezi? The time frame was that we were going to deliver by December… we are only left with civil around Nsezi.
“We are informed now that may delay a bit and we have checked with our implementing agent which is Mhlathuze Water.
“We have timed this project to be finished at the same time as the Nsezi project so that by the time they are done we have the required infrastructure to deliver water,” he added.
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