Wednesday Walk - Irrigation Dam & Damn Irritations

I will take you on a real interesting walk to an innovative water conservation project my hubby managed some time back.
The photo below was taken on a visit in March 2019 - see how green and lush the vegetation is at the end of our summer rains.

This photo was taken in 2012 just after the completion of the dam - looks more like a mud pool at this stage not so!

Hubby was totally taken out of his comfort zone when asked to design and manage this project by consultants he worked for at the time.
The project was an irrigation dam in Umhlanga on the North Coast of Kwazulu Natal; his specialty actually being roads and storm water! The client is a well-known environmentally sensitive property development company here in Kwazulu Natal; you dare not even cut a branch off a tree without first consulting with them on any of their properties, something I really admire.
I remember when I was still a working gal in the corporate world, just how frustrated our land surveyors used to get about their line of sight being obscured by one little tree that they could not even touch!
But I'm digressing; this earth embankment irrigation dam now serves the purposes for both irrigation and attenuation by the harvesting storm water run-off.

The project encompassed major earthworks, storm water drain laying construction techniques, and further landscaping by dressing the open space surrounds to transform the area into an eco-friendly environment that would enhance and utilize this area’s natural resources and reveal the natural beauty existent in our country, South Africa.
Understandably many other specialties had to be brought into this project; Landscapers, Geotechnical, Electrical, Mechanical as well as Environmental Consultants and Geosynthetic Engineers.

The land here used to be under sugarcane cultivation but now comprises commercial, retail, residential, and green space components. The dam’s storage capacity is 5.8 million litres, which adequately serves the irrigation requirements for this development.

PLANNING AND CONSTRUCTION
On site investigations at the time revealed that the valley line had been disturbed, and measures had to be taken to improve the condition thereof. Removal of rubble and waste material uncovered during the excavation process was continually monitored.

The dam is situated at the valley head of a steeply inclined valley and straddled by an existing road network so was designed to collect storm water run-off from these roads, as well as from surrounding properties.
I honestly did not realise how much planning it takes to build a simple irrigation dam, but of course hubby took me through the whole process! Here they are busy dressing the embankment slopes.

Water collection is a priority aspect for successful irrigation purposes, especially in a summer rainfall region. However, during dryer winter months a supplementary source was sought, and this was achieved by the abstraction of river water from the nearby Ohlanga River.
The Pump House is being built here.

Dam inlet at the fore bay

Dam spillway being built

A dam access strip road had to be built as well. Note the Indian Ocean in the background; these offices have magnificent views of the ocean!

The Spillway Labyrinth Shute as it looks today - this was designed by a brilliant septuagenarian Hydro Mechanical Engineer who was honoured with a fellowship at the Engineering Institute. He had a wealth of knowledge which he did not mind sharing; a wonderful friendship developed between him and hubby during that project as they worked closely. Being of such a ripe old age, he was still used to doing design work the old-fashioned way so hubby would often be asked to assist him with the CAD programs. He had a brilliant mind, always calculating and overthinking designs and was known to sometimes even start designing something on the back of a paper plate:)

There were some stressful times during the construction as the project was extensively disrupted by extreme and inclement weather conditions which prevailed over the Kwazulu Natal region with a total of 29 rainy days!

In the end however, this eco-friendly project has been a successful water saving initiative with long term benefits for the surrounding areas and has had a positive impact on the environment.

WEDNESDAYWALK & MAKE ME SMILE
I'm super late for @tattoodjay & @elizacheng's #wednesdaywalk & #makemesmile, but I was determined to get this posted come what may!
The reason I'm so late posting really does not make me smile as it once again is due to an electrical fault; hours without power! Not due to LOADSHEDDING which all South Africans are complaining about at the moment, as we're being left in the dark way too often these days because of our power utility Eskom's failures.
But this did make me smile, a new pickup line in South Africa:

And this one below actually is no joke but I thought it was very funny and very puzzling at the same time! It was a real statement by our power utility which was shared on a very useful App called EskomSePush which warns us of loadshedding:

_{Connecting the people of #STEEM across South Africa. #steemsa JOIN US ON DISCORD (South Africans Only) JOIN US ON TWITTER JOIN US ON FACEBOOK}

Original Content by @lizelle

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!steemitworldmap -29.732269 lat 31.069052 long Ridgeside Irrigation Dam, Umhlanga Ridge, KZN, South Africa d3scr