La Gogue dam project to cost more |05 March 2018

Work on the project to raise the level of the La Gogue dam is being delayed and as a result its ultimate cost will exceed the projected R189 million.

The project is being delayed as a solution is still being sorted out between contractor Sinohydro and the Pick-up, Plant and Truck Hire Association (PPTHA), for the latter to be included for sub contract work in the project.

It was the chief executive of the Public Utilities Corporation (PUC), Philip Morin, who said this during a ministerial visit to the site on Saturday.

The delegation comprised the Minister for Environment, Energy & Climate Change Didier Dogley, the chairman of PUC Eddie Belle and other representatives of PUC and of Sinohydro.

The aim of the visit on Saturday was to see, discuss and seek further information on what was happening at the dam site since work started in January 2018 to raise its level.

“It’s been eighteen days since work has ground to a halt. Certain equipment for the project are not on site for the time being and this is resulting in the project being delayed, and this comes with an additional cost,” said Mr Morin.

“We hope that very soon there will be a resolution to the stalemate and that work will progress and the project is delivered on time, which is by the end of next year for commissioning,” he added, noting that the delays are costing R250,000 as additional cost per day.

Minister Dogley said that government is in favour for local contractors to be involved in the project as it will benefit the country but work conditions need to be discussed as the contract had already been given to the sole contractor.

He said he hopes that a decision on an agreement between the two parties will be reached soon.

A representative of Sinohydro, Zhou Shuntian, said that apart from the continued negotiation with PPTHA, the company has outsourced other contracts for clearing works, tree cutting, transportation of materials and soon rock blasting, to local contractors.

“But as for the main part of the work, there is a lot of liability associated with it and it is our company’s responsibility to make sure that everything goes right. It concerns transporting heavy earth to be deposited at the right location with care. The work requires a lot of care and expertise,” he said.

PUC contracted Sinohydro, a Chinese company based in Mauritius, last year to raise the level of the dam by six metres so as to increase its water storage capacity. When work is finished, which is supposed to be in two years’ time, the storage capacity of the dam will be boosted by an additional 600,000 cubic metres, representing an increase of 60% over the current figure.

This will also see a reduction in the use of desalinated water which will translate in huge savings for PUC as it spends a significant amount of money on running the desalination plants.

A bit behind schedule, work being carried out now involves clearing and tree cutting as a designated area is being prepared for an earth quarry for the removal of heavy earth for the main body of the dam.

Minister Dogley said the project is of great importance for the population of Seychelles and with the continued growth in the tourism industry, there is the need to bridge the gap in water demand by increasing water storage capacity.

He said at the moment 98% of households are getting treated water with a few percentage of households higher up in the mountains opting to use untreated water directly from rivers, but the government’s policy remains to provide every household access to treated water.

“During the rainy season from October to February, we don’t encounter any big problem to provide treated water but from May to August we observe a gap between the amount of water that is being used and the amount of water we are able to retrieve from the dam which had prompted the government in the 1990s to invest in water desalination plants. We want to reduce the amount of desalinated water and increase that of rain water we provide to people and the only way we can achieve this is by increasing the efficiency of our system by reducing water wastage through repairing broken or leaking pipes, increasing the capacity of our water storage and finally working with the people and businesses to raise their awareness on the need to eliminate water wastage,” he said.

On his part Mr Morin said that apart from providing enough water for usage, the project will definitely reduce the dependency on desalinated water which is very energy consuming.

“This will help to reduce the amount of energy we use to desalinate water but most importantly is that during the drought season we will be able to manage our water stock with more confidence as we will have more water available in storage,” he said.