The University of Fort Hare (UFH) will be responsible for the appointment of the professional service providers and contractors for two water infrastructure projects, valued at R130-million, that will benefit students, as well as residents and the economy of Alice, in the Eastern Cape.

The projects include the upgrade of the existing water treatment capacity from 0.93-million cubic metres to 2.9-million cubic metres a year and the construction of a new 4 Mℓ reservoir  to improve water supply to the campus; and the upgrade of the town's wastewater treatment works' capacity from 2 Mℓ a day to 4 Mℓ a day.

UFH will act as the project implementation agent to successfully deliver the projects, which are being funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training. It is envisaged that both treatment works will be operational by March 31, 2023, says UFH Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Institutional Support Dr Oscar van Heerden.

“The UFH Alice campus has been experiencing water problems for some years. In particular, the construction of the new student village has exacerbated the situation and, in order for us to address this, we will be embarking on infrastructure upgrading of the existing water treatment works,” he says.

“Concurrently, the existing wastewater treatment works is also operating above its maximum capacity. With the increase in the water supply, the existing water treatment works would not be able to treat the effluent from both the town and the university. The upgrading of the wastewater treatment works is, therefore, required to treat the increase of the effluent,” he notes.

“Upon completion, the UFH Alice campus will have a more reliable water supply, with adequate pressure, and a sewerage treatment works that can treat the effluent from both the town of Alice and UFH. The increased capacity of the wastewater treatment works will provide for an increase in treated water for agricultural purposes and for effluent discharged into the river that is compliant to environmental standards and regulations,” says Van Heerden.

A project steering committee will be established and will be chaired by Van Heerden. The Amathole district municipality will also be part of the committee as the owner of the water treatment works, as well as the Raymond Mhlaba municipality. The project steering committee will have oversight of the two projects.

The UFH is in advanced stages for the appointment of professional service providers, including an environmental-impact assessment specialist, consulting engineer for the water treatment works and process engineer for the wastewater treatment works.

“The UFH strives to empower qualifying local enterprises in construction by earmarking and ring-fencing specific work packages for small, medium-sized and microenterprises. This will be dealt with once the design work is done and once the various work packages have been identified,” Van Heerden adds.