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9
CONSTRUCTION WORLD
FEBRUARY
2016
BUILDING THE
MIRACLE CAMPUS
The Urban and Peri-urban Water Supply
Project is an ongoing water supply project
which incorporates the upgrade of current
water supply infrastructure and the establishment of
a new system in the province of Semonkong.
“Compiling a procedures manual for use in a water
supply network and reticulation upgrade project that
includes five towns in Lesotho, GIBB worked with the
Water and Sewage Company (WASCO) to ensure that
the beneficiaries received safe, fit for purpose, quality
infrastructure,” explained Roland David, environmental
monitoring manager at GIBB.
The initial conclusions arising from the project
were that themonitoring aspects of the environmental
management plan needed to be incorporated into
the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) policies
and procedures as soon as possible so that uninter-
rupted monitoring could continue post construction.
Furthermore, that WASCO staff operated in a manner
that was safe to themselves, surrounding communities
and the environment.
The Health and Safety Policy Manual is now
complete and has been approved by the LMDA and
WASCO. There were 10 procedures that were identi-
fied in the manual where risks were identified. GIBB
developed these procedures to address these high risk
areas but also as an exercise to develop the templates
in which all future procedures could be developed.
“The identified risks included areas such as
personnel, skills and competencies relating to health
and safety, awareness of health and safety, procedures,
systems, documentation, driving, travel, weather and
equipment,” shared David.
“The direct benefits of this project are the infra-
structural foundations, skills development, institu-
tional changes that are in turn creating wealth and
advancement for Lesotho. We are on the right track to
achieve full implementation and sustainable benefits
for Lesotho,” concluded David.
TLC’s Miracle Campus is the
base from which it operates its
lifesaving mobile hospital
out-reach services, taking medical treat-
ment to Swaziland’s rural communities,
most of whom have limited access to
healthcare services.
In February 2013, TLC received a dona-
tion to buy 30-acres of land in Sidvokodvo
– 25 km south of Manzini – to build its
Miracle Campus. TLC has been providing
mobilemedical services through its mobile
hospitals to Swaziland’s impoverished
communities for nine years without a
permanent base of operations.
The Miracle Campus is now home to
TLC’s logistics nerve centre, several large
warehouses that store inventory and
where restocking of its mobile hospital
units takes place, staff housing, visitor
accommodation, offices and more.
The Barloworld and Caterpillar
donation, which included a financial
contribution by TLC to fund a portion
of the cost of the equipment, was re-
ceived in early November. It comprised a
Cat backhoe loader, Cat utility roller and
Cat telehandler.
The equipment will be used for
further construction at Miracle Campus.
It’s a five-year project that will see
construction of 37 buildings including a
Specialised Care & Surgical Centre and
patient accommodation.
Echo VanderWal, managing executive
director of the Luke Commission, says
that without the Miracle Campus as a base
for its operations, TLC would not have
managed to provide 300 000 medical
services to 60 000 patients in Swaziland’s
rural communities in 2015.
Since starting its mobile hospital
services in Swaziland in 2006, TLC has
treated more than 267 755 patients
and provided more than 1,1-million
medical services.
Among these services are eye tests
and glasses fitted, blood pressure and
sugar tests, surgeries, HIV testing and
counselling, wheelchair access, cataract
removal, laboratory testing, TB screening,
x-rays and more.
Of the Barloworld Equipment and
Caterpillar donation, VanderWal says: “As
the TLC Miracle Campus is developed
over the next several years, the Barloworld
Equipment donationwill help TLC leverage
its resources to serve significantly more
patients. In 2016 TLC will expand to
two teams and increase the number of
patients served by more than 50%. The
equipment from Barloworld is critical to
TLC attaining Swaziland’s strategic goal
of taking comprehensive health care ‘close
to the people’.
“We are thoroughly delighted with
this partnership and very thankful for the
commitment Barloworld Equipment has
made to touching the lives of those in
rural communities.”
Lesibana Ledwaba, Barloworld Equip-
ment’s divisional executive director:
strategy, risk and operational transforma-
tion, points out that rural communities
are the ones who bear the brunt in terms
of a lack of basic services such as access
to healthcare centres and other services
that urban communities take for granted.
“When our principal approached us
to partner with them for the construction
of the healthcare facility in Swaziland, we
did not hesitate as this initiative perfectly
matches our vision for shared value
creation, plus we have a footprint in the
country. Some of our employees also
come from the same communities that
currently experience limited access to
quality healthcare services.”
“ The dream now,” concluded
VanderWal, “is to make Miracle Campus a
centre of excellence and training with the
intent of training teams in other southern
African countries to duplicate what TLC
has done in Swaziland.”
Barloworld Equipment and Cater-
pillar join TLC’s diversified team of part-
ners including the Kingdom of Swaziland
and USAID.
LESOTHO WATER
SUPPLY PROGRESS
Engineering consulting firm, GIBB, has
developed the Health and Safety Policy
Manual for the Urban and Peri-urban
Water Supply Project. Developed in
partnership with WASCO and the
LMDA, the aim of the project is to
address the water supply challenges
faced by Lesotho.
Roland David, environmental monitoring
manager at GIBB.
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Barloworld Equipment, the Caterpillar dealer for Southern
Africa, has together with Caterpillar, donated earthmoving
equipment to Swaziland-based The Luke Commission (TLC) to
assist with the building of its Miracle Campus.
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