BY KWANELE TSABEDZE
MATSAPHA – An ingenious solution to make more electricity!
This is EEC’s investment of E39.5 million to remove approximately 500,000 cubic metres of silt from the Mkinkomo dam through an ingenious engineering solution. The company has contracted the Stefanutti Stocks Coastal Joint Venture to dredge the dam for the first time since 2016.
The removal of the silt is done to improve the dam’s water holding capacity. According to a statement by EEC Corporate Communications Manager Khaya Mavuso, the bigger the holding capacity, the longer the Hydroelectricity production sets will run. The dredging is being done using a floating dredger, which sucks muddy water out of the river.
The muddy water is pumped into a walled filtering enclosures called coffer dams, where the mud gets deposited before the now mud-free water flows back into the river. A total of about 18 people are working on the site.
The process has been ongoing for six of the projected 18 months which it will take to remove the half a million cubic metres of silt from the weir. The Mkinkomo dam, which is on the Little Usutu River in Matsapha, supplies water to Edwaleni and Maguduza power stations via a canal for power generation.
This was all revealed during a media tour of the Mkinkomo dam to observe the process of removing the silt from the dam.
According to a statement from EEC, the dam has been accumulating silt (mud) to the point where its water holding capacity has been reduced by 70%. This directly translates to a reduction in the amount of electricity produced by the Edwaleni and Maguduza power stations.
“When Mkinkomo was built, it had a capacity of 2.2 million cubic metres. But as time went on, that storage capacity has decreased because of the silt,” revealed EEC Managing Director (MD) Ernest Mkhonta during the tour.
“The benefit of this exercise is that we will be able to generate power properly again at Maguduza and Dwaleni power stations. We will also be able to extend power generation as we will have more water stored here,” said the MD.
According to the statement issued by EEC, the water released at Ezulwini power station is of no value if the Edwaleni and Maguduza power stations are not at normal capacity.
This is the second time where the dam has been drained of silt. In the drought of 2016, 360,000 cubic metres of silt was removed from the dam through excavators and trucks – and that was not all the silt which was present in the dam. This time however, the floating dredger has been introduced by Stefanutti Stocks to be able to get as much silt out of the water as possible, with the target being half a million cubic metres.
Speaking at the media tour, EEC Power Stations Manager Charles Coleman pointed out that the filtering system of the coffer dams incorporates the naturally occuring reeds in the area. He mentioned that it was important to EEC to consider the environment when setting up the project.
Power Generation Manager Doctor Hlongwane also echoed Coleman’s words about environmental awareness.
“We had the Environmental Authority come and appraise the biodiversity of the area as well to consider if any of the fish, bird or plant species may be significantly negatively affected by the dredging process,” said Hlongwane.
The project scope of the dredging process includes within it the rehabilitation of the site at the end of the project. The project itself is expected to end about 12 months from now.
