It was another night to remember for Royal HaskoningDHV who walked away with two awards at the IMESA/CESA Excellence Awards held in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday 30th October. The Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA) and Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) recognized outstanding achievements in municipal infrastructure and honoured projects showcasing how engineering enhances the lives of the local communities.
In the category for Community Upliftment & Job Creation, Royal HaskoningDHV won the award for the ePhatheni Water Supply Scheme for the uMgungundlovu District Municipality. In the Engineering Excellence in Structures and Civils category, the winners were Royal HaskoningDHV, Knight Piésold Consulting and Naidu Consulting joint venture for the Western Aqueduct Project for eThekwini Municipality.
ePhatheni Bulk Water Supply Scheme
The ePhatheni Bulk Water Supply Scheme for uMgungundlovu District Municipality supported by the Department of Water and Sanitation was funded through the Municipal Infrastructure Grant funding programme. The ePhatheni Bulk Water Supply Scheme project involved amongst other things, effective and successful co-operation between Royal HaskoningDHV, the community, interested and affected parties including local authorities, non-government organisations and the labour force. The long-term aim of this project is to satisfy the potable water requirements for the ePhatheni area up to 2031. This has improved the quality of life for the community facilitating increased economic growth opportunities.
As part of the socio-economic development of the area an Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) was implemented, accredited training facilities were provided, career guidance was offered to a number of dedicated students and a series of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives were initiated as part of the project. There was maximum utilisation of local labour with 50% of those employed being women. As an exit strategy, the project provided for accredited training in water and wastewater reticulation with participants attaining NQF Level 3. The qualifications obtained will enhance work opportunities for these trainees in the future. In keeping with Royal HaskoningDHV’s brand promise of ‘Enhancing Society Together’ the project benefited the ePhatheni community in many ways including the donation of dictionaries to a number of communities in the area. Five Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres/Crèches were identified at ePhatheni in Ward 6 where the training of teachers and supervisors was carried out including health and safety and first aid training. In addition, donations of furniture, educational material, toys, clothing and first aid kits was made to all 5 ECD centres.
Western Aqueduct Project
The Western Aqueduct was conceived in the mid-1990s to address water shortages in the Northern and Western parts of Durban. This new bulk water conveyance project eclipses all other water distribution systems within eThekwini Municipality, being their single biggest project in terms of size, complexity and cost. The planning for this 30-year, 400 Ml / day project commenced in the mid-1990’s and is a credit to the municipality’s water planners and engineers who drove the project to fruition.
Phase 1 of the aqueduct consists of 8 kms of DN1600 and 11 kms of DN1400 pipeline from Umlaas Road Reservoir to the Inchanga Railway Station and was commissioned in 2010. Phase 2 of the project consists of 56 kilometres of steel pipeline ranging between DN1600 and DN500. This phase runs from Inchanga to Ntuzuma and has been constructed under six different contracts.
