Millions wasted as Hazelmere Dam project stalled after Department’s failure to pay

[Binary_Bark]

Recent information has emerged that puts the blame for the incomplete Hazelmere Dam project squarely on the doorstep of the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).

Following the previous article in the Courier (Hazelmere Botch-Up, November 15), a project engineer who worked on the Hazelmere site, who asked not to be named, said the mega-project to double the dam’s water capacity came to a halt after the department failed to come up with about R40 million needed by Group Five, the contractors on the project, to buy specialised material to complete the work.
However, escalation costs have now snowballed the estimated cost to finish the remaining four percent of the project to over R100 million. The project has cost R526 million so far.
Responding to questions from the Courier, Group Five spokesperson Heidi Geldenhuys confirmed that Group Five terminated the contract on October 9, 2018 following months of failing to get payment from the department and moved off site in February this year.

Millions wasted as Hazelmere Dam project stalled after Department's failure to pay | North Coast Courier

However, escalation costs have now snowballed the estimated cost to finish the remaining four percent of the project to over R100 million. The project has cost R526 million so far.

northcoastcourier.co.za

 

[Gaz{M}]

But we need that R40 million to bail out SAA.

 

[ToxicBunny]

I was actually wondering what the state of that project was recently...

Doesn't surprise me that DWS screwed the pooch on the last portion of the project... and its so vitally important for that part of the North Coast.

 

[Jet-Fighter7700]

guess New BMW's needed to be brought.

so tender money had to go to that.

 

[Kosmik]

I was actually wondering what the state of that project was recently...

Doesn't surprise me that DWS screwed the pooch on the last portion of the project... and its so vitally important for that part of the North Coast.

Personally I think dams should be treated as national projects, not municipal ones.

 

[konfab]

Personally I think dams should be treated as national projects, not municipal ones.

Umm, they are national projects. All water resources like dams are the "competance" of national government. This is because the government nationalised most of the water resources in the country in 1998.

IMAGINE MY SHOCK THAT THEY ARE A COMPLETE FCUKUP.

All dams should be privatised instead, with municipal infrastructure being kept in place to allow residents the choice in where to buy their water from. If some greedy SOB hikes up the water price, it simply creates an incentive for people to find other sources. If there is a drought, the price goes up and people use less. Which is precisely what didn't happen in Cape Town until it was too late.

 

[supersunbird]

Personally I think dams should be treated as national projects, not municipal ones.

Isn't it a national project, since done for DWS?

 

[Kosmik]

Ah

Umm, they are national projects. All water resources like dams are the "competance" of national government. This is because the government nationalised most of the water resources in the country in 1998.

IMAGINE MY SHOCK THAT THEY ARE A COMPLETE FCUKUP.

All dams should be privatised instead, with municipal infrastructure being kept in place to allow residents the choice in where to buy their water from. If some greedy SOB hikes up the water price, it simply creates an incentive for people to find other sources. If there is a drought, the price goes up and people use less. Which is precisely what didn't happen in Cape Town until it was too late.

My bad, i read the article as if it was done by the local water department and waste ie: dsw.

 

[ToxicBunny]

Ah

My bad, i read the article as if it was done by the local water department and waste ie: dsw.

Its kind of a mixed bag of ownership for the project

Umgeni Water has a portion of it, as does DSW...

 

[Vrotappel]

526 million reasons to feel good!

Viva ANC... Viva!

 

[Azg]

It would have been interesting to get the other side of the story as well, instead of Group 5 only. Why would R40 million of work "escalate" to over R100 million unless Group 5 are also trying to pull a fast one?
Why is 4% of the work costing R100 million if 96% cost R526 million?

 

[The_Librarian]

Some have Millions
They have Billions
But I have Trillions*


*from the same book by Nicholas Fisk.

 

[Milano]

Well done on another f-up.

 

[The_Librarian]

Group 5 is deep in financial distress...

 

[4ftersh0ck]

I check the water stats on the dam quite regularly. After all the rain we've had recently, I was expecting the dam percentage to be much higher. Now it all makes sense.

 

[grok]

From R40mil to R526mil..!!!

Cadres doing the gobble, gobble, gobble again?

 

[ToxicBunny]

From R40mil to R526mil..!!!

Cadres doing the gobble, gobble, gobble again?

Might do to read the article properly, original budget estimate was R498m, and has cost R526m so far... and due to delays from DWS there is an additional R100m that will need to be spent to complete the last 4% of the project.

 

[Sarg3_ZN]

From R40mil to R526mil..!!!

Cadres doing the gobble, gobble, gobble again?

KFC and Johnnie Blue doesn't come cheap.

 

[Paul_S]

The problem with a lot of construction projects is if you don't complete it as quickly as possible it becomes much harder and more expensive to complete later.
e.g. Materials degrade over time, exposed re-enforcing rusts, water gets into places it shouldn't and causes structural damage due to external protection systems not being completed.
If it get's bad enough the entire structure may need to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch in which case you pay for the demolishing and carting away of rubble as well as an entirely new project.

So you may end up paying once for the project, then lots of money to demolish and cleanup and then once again for a new project. It could easily add up to 3 or 4 times the original cost of the project.

 

[Gaz{M}]

Too busy finding Billions for Eskom and SAA to find millions for water and other luxuries we can do without.