Multidisciplinary professional engineering firm Zimile Consulting Engineers has completed a project that secures water supply and storage to the communities of KwaThema, in Gauteng.

The project, which formed part of a programme driven by the municipality aimed at constructing communities' reservoirs to ensure water security, includes a 20 megalitre pre-stressed and post-tensioned concrete water reservoir and a 2.5 megalitre concrete tower.

The project ran from November 2019 to June 2022.

The new reservoir and tower form part of the existing water infrastructure, which includes two reservoirs and a tower with a capacity of 22 megalitres, delivering total clean water capacity to communities in KwaThema of more than 44 megalitres, says Zimile Consulting Engineers water technologist and project manager Nomfundo Maphanga.

Discussing the project challenges, she says that the initial tower design did not factor in any underground electrical and telecommunications infrastructure at the proposed position, with the tower required to be migrated to a new position.

“The discovery of underground cabling during the initial construction stages proved to be a safety risk to the on-site workers. It also introduced delays to the project timelines.

“As a result, we had to institute geotechnical studies to confirm the viability of the new location. This discovery led to an increase in the scope and complexity of the project by adding more pipework above and underground,” Maphanga continues.

The pipeline redesign was the biggest challenge faced during the project, as the company had to ensure that its pipeline design and hydraulics worked well together to pump water upwards to the reservoir and tower.

“It became more challenging as we were under pressure to meet contractual timelines," Maphanga adds, noting that to combat these challenges, Zimile Consulting Engineers had a professional team of a water engineer, structural engineer, geotechnical engineer and project manager on the project.

“Our team makeup and technical expertise ensured the project's success. Our water and structural engineers were sufficiently skilled and experienced to successfully manage the migration of the tower structure from one location to another.”

Further, there were financial and contractual timeline implications to decisions of this magnitude that the team managed exceptionally well.

“We worked with amazing partners and clients during the project. Also, thanks to the Gauteng-based municipality, the communities of KwaThema should have no water supply and storage concerns for many years to come because of the successful implementation of this project,” concludes Maphanga.