La Gogue dam being filled up |23 December 2022
The La Gogue dam is for the moment being filled with water from Le Niol
The Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) has started to fill up the La Gogue Dam now that construction work to raise its level to increase its storage capacity has completed.
It was the principal engineer at the PUC water division, Franky Dupres, who made the announcement following a visit to the dam yesterday afternoon.
He said given the start of the rainy season, PUC has found it the best time to start filling up the dam.
To fill up the dam, water has to be transferred from the Rochon Dam via the Hermitage water treatment plant and from the Rhodas water tank at Le Niol that filters water from the Le Niol, Rhodas and Mount Simpson rivers.
Mr Dupres said that while the transferring of water to the La Gogue dam from the water source at Le Niol is running smoothly, two weak points were detected on the water pipeline when transferring water to the dam from the Rochon dam on a first attempt on December 15, 2022.
He explained that the water pipeline used to transfer water into the dam had not been in use during the entire four years that work to raise the level of the La Gogue dam was being carried out and this has caused some defects on the pipeline which required some fittings.
Mr Dupres said after the two weak points on the pipeline had been mended, a second attempt was made on December 17 to transfer water to La Gogue and this time it resulted in two pipe burst incidents – one at the Marine Charter and one at the Union Vale roundabout – due to wear and tear on the pipeline. The pipes have been mended and the next trial to transfer water from Rochon dam via Hermitage to the La Gogue dam will take place on December 26, 2022.
He explained that they chose that date because it is a public holiday and they anticipate low traffic circulation and movement of people that will allow them to work on any eventualities that may occur, especially if the pipe bursts underneath the road.
He said that the dam will be filled up in phases, first up to the level it was before the construction project (for monitoring purposes) and thereafter entirely by end of March 2023.
Work to raise the level of the La Gogue to increase its capacity by 600,000 cubic metres started in January 2018. PUC budgeted R186 million for the project but it had to spend a total of R307 million on the dam on account of additional works among other problems, inclusive of tax. The original dam was built in 1976.
Before the extension, the La Gogue dam had a capacity of 1 million cubic metres and now it will hold 1.6 million cubic metres of water when filled to capacity.
Meanwhile, with the Rochon dam filled to capacity following the heavy rains during the past few days, Mr Dupres said that the water restrictions have been lifted.
Patrick Joubert