NMBM EMERGENCY WATER AUGMENTATION
The severe drought conditions prevailing in the dam catchment areas supplying the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan area are severe and are worsening, in spite of recent sporadic rainfall. The drought has a recurrence interval of worse than 1 in 100 years.
The graph below depicts the historical and estimated future water demand. The contribution from the sources is shown in vertical bars below. It is estimated that with current consumption trends, and with 50 to 75% of average rainfall, the western sources will be depleted in March 2012.
With all the water saving measures in place and with groundwater sources being commissioned and the desalination plant in operation, a serious shortfall will occur after March 2012.
A series of interventions, initiated by the NMBM, have been started with the express intention of alleviating the current drastic water shortage. These range from monitoring and curtailing the consumption of water to exploring the use of alternative water sources. NMBM imposed its emergency restriction measures earlier this year in order to maximise the curtailment of demands and in addition it accelerated a wide range of Water Conservation and Water Demand Management measures.
The interventions proposed in the Emergency Water Action Plan are the following:
· Water Conservation and water demand measures which includes Water Restrictions
· Drought Publicity Campaign
· Maximise the supply from the Nooitgedagt Scheme
· Fast Track the Nooitgedagt Low Level Scheme
· Swartkops Desalination Scheme
· Groundwater Scheme
· Accessing Dead Storage from Impofu Dam
Swartkops Desalination Scheme
The NMBM has decided to offer preliminary information and advanced warning in anticipation of a design and construct tender, for the desalination portion of the contract.
This only serves as preliminary information with the final information being made available with the official tender documents.
The purpose of the notification is to:
· Notify all Service Providers interested to submit tenders for this project to register on the NMBM Suppliers Database as well as with the Construction Industry Development Board.
· Make tenderers aware of the supply chain process
· To make additional information available regarding the proposed Desalination Project
· To obtain a list of all interested parties – submit contact details before downloading the information document
The information document can be downloaded with the following link:
Swartkops Desalination Project- Design Considerations