If rain persists, La Gogue will reach its capacity in March, says PUC   |12 January 2023

The level of water in the La Gogue dam yesterday. The PUC has said that if rain persists, the dam will reach its full capacity by March this year

Meanwhile impounding of water from Rochon and Le Niol continues

The Public Utilities Corporation (PUC) has said that if rain persists, the La Gogue dam will reach its full capacity by March this year.

The statement was made by the principal engineer at the PUC Water Division, Frankie Dupres, during an interview to local media yesterday morning while giving the latest update on the impounding of the La Gogue dam, which started last month at the beginning of the rainy season.

Mr Dupres said that on December 26, they identified a weak point on the water pipeline transferring water from the Rochon dam to La Gogue dam. This was on a pipeline located in the English River Health Centre compound. Mr Dupres said this was due to an old rusty pipe, but which has now been replaced.

“We quickly mobilised our resources to fix the issue on the same day and work continued the following day on December 27. Impounding of water resumed on December 28 so as to reach the target of water level set for the La Gogue dam, which was 18 percent,” explained Mr Dupres.

He added that thereafter they contacted PUC engineers to carry out an evaluation and assess the stability and seepage at the dam.

“Everything was good and we got the go ahead to move on to the second stage, which is to continue impounding water to reach our new target of 38 percent level of water in the dam,” he further added.

Mr Dupres said they need to constantly liaise with their consultants and engineers to evaluate the stability and seepage at the dam.

“If we get sufficient amount of rain, we expect to fill the dam to its capacity by the end of March this year,” he said.

To fill up the dam, water has to be transferred from the Rochon dam and Le Niol.

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.

Patsy Canaya

Portre: Louis Toussaint