The University of Fort Hare (UFH) will appoint professional service providers and contractors for two R130-million water infrastructure projects in Alice, Eastern Cape, that would benefit students, locals, and the local economy.
The projects include upgrading the town’s wastewater treatment works from 2 Ml a day to 4 Ml a day, as well as upgrading the existing water treatment capacity from 0.93 million cubic metres to 2.9 million cubic meters a year and the construction of a new 4 Ml reservoir to improve water supply to the campus.
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UFH will serve as the project implementation agent for the initiatives sponsored by the Department of Higher Education and Training. Both treatment plants are expected to be operational by March 31, 2023, according to UFH Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Institutional Support Dr. Oscar van Heerden.
For some years, the UFH Alice campus has had water troubles. The development of the new student community, in particular, has aggravated the problem, and to solve it, we will be improving the current water treatment works’ infrastructure.
At the same time, the existing wastewater treatment plants are functioning at full capacity. The present water treatment plants would be unable to process the effluent from both the town and the university as the water supply increases. As a result, upgrading the wastewater treatment plants is necessary to deal with the increased effluent.
University of Fort Hare water infrastructure projects benefits
The UFH Alice campus will have a more stable water supply with enough pressure and a sewage treatment plant that can handle the effluent from both the town of Alice and UFH after the project is complete.
The wastewater treatment plant’s expanded capacity will result in more treated water for agricultural use and effluent released into the river that meets environmental requirements and laws.
A project steering committee will be formed, with Van Heerden as its chairman. As the owner of the water treatment facilities, the Amathole district municipality and the Raymond Mhlaba municipality will be represented on the committee. The water infrastructure projects in Alice’s steering committee will oversee the two initiatives.
UFH Hospital is in the process of appointing professional service providers, including an environmental impact assessment specialist, a consulting engineer for the water treatment works, and a process engineer for the wastewater treatment works.
The UFH, according to Van Heerden, aims to strengthen qualified local construction businesses by earmarking and ring-fencing certain work packages for small, medium-sized, and microbusinesses. After the design work is completed and the individual task packages have been identified, this will be addressed.
