PROJECT: MCWAP OVERVIEW

Mokolo Crocodile Water Augmentation Project (MCWAP)

To meet South Africa's future energy needs, water requirements in the Waterberg coal fields in Limpopo are expected to increase tenfold over the next 20 years. The importance of increasing bulk water supply to the area is further accentuated by the possibility of a SASOL plant being located in the area to produce liquid fuel from coal.

The project will be commercially viable with all costs recovered from water users, with the exception of a small municipal portion.

Project Profile

The project will be implemented in two phases. Phase 1 comprises a pump station and a 45-km pipeline. The approximately one-metre-diameter pipes will deliver 30-million m3 bulk water per year from the Mokolo Dam.

The system will run parallel to and tie into the existing infrastructure that supplies the Exxaro Grootegeluk Mine, the Eskom Matimba Power Station and the Lephalale Local Municipality with bulk water.

Exxaro owns and operates the existing water system, which will be acquired and incorporated into the new government waterworks.

Phase 2 consists of an abstraction weir in the Crocodile River at Vlieepoort near Thabazimbi, degritting channels with high and low lift pump stations and a 160-km pipeline of pipes with a diameter of up to two metres. It also entails the erection of break pressure and balancing reservoirs to deliver up to 197-million m3 bulk water per year to Steenbokpan, tying in with Phase 1 infrastructure.

Both phases will require supplementary infrastructure such as access roads, an operations centre and additional measuring weirs in the Crocodile River, as well as monitoring and control systems for the entire water infrastructure.

Construction of Phase 1 is expected to begin in July 2011, which will enable delivery of water by July 2013, supplying Medupi Power Station, currently under construction.