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CONSTRUCTION WORLD
MARCH
2017
10
Acquisition grows groundwater capabilities
MARKETPLACE
Paul Olivier, managing director of JG Afrika, says the acquisition
of the 100% black-owned consultancy comes at a time when the
management of South Africa’s scarce water resources and the
upgrading of related infrastructure have been placed on top of
the agenda.
This intense focus on water infrastructure is mirrored by the
recent appointment of JG Afrika as the geohydrologist professional
for a large water and sanitation project for schools in rural areas that
is being driven by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Public Works.
This contract, awarded to JG Afrika by the firm by Ramgoolam
(formerly B. Ramgoolam and Associates), complements the
company’s already extensive portfolio of successful water-related
initiatives. Just as importantly, it is also the first such project to
benefit from the incorporation of Regan Rose’s more than 20 years
of management and technical capability in the field under the
JG Afrika banner.
The founder of Geowater IQ will lead JG Afrika’s existing team of
six geohydrological specialists deployed on the water and sanitation
upgrade, while managing the entire project, including co-ordinating
the activities of the drilling, sustainable-yield testing and borehole
equipping subcontractors.
The highly regarded geohydrologist has nurtured a long working
relationship with JG Afrika’s team in the Zulu Kingdom over the years,
including as assistant director of Geohydrology in the Department of
Water & Sanitation’s (DWS) Durban office from 2002 to 2005.
Rose says that he has always valued JG Afrika’s leading
expertise in the engineering sector, one of the many drivers
behind the acquisition.
“I am pleased to have merged Geowater IQ with such a reputable
firm of engineers,” he says, adding that it has also been gratifying to
immediately start working on this important, but challenging project
that forms part of the ongoing second phase of the Department of
Education’s Water Supply and Sanitation Programme.
As Rose notes, there is ample opportunity to deploy these
specialist solutions, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, where site
assessments undertaken in the Midlands Region in late 2016
confirmed that 88 schools require new groundwater resources, and
a further 30 require a review and refurbishment of their existing
infrastructure where possible or new groundwater resources will
need to be found to supply their needs.
Bogopane-Zulu challenged Ratlou
community members with mud homes
to take every opportunity of using the
Hydraform brick and block machinery as a
means of eliminating poverty, inequality and
unemployment. She added, “Community
members will be able to make bricks and
build their own houses. The initiative will
reduce unemployment. However, we want
them to understand the do-it-yourself (DIY)
initiative. More people will be employed in
this project after we have registered it as a
non-profit organisation (NPO).”
“Those who will be working here will
receive a stipend. However, the main
objective is to ensure that the community
stops relying on the government for RDP
houses,” said Tebogo Modise, Mayor of
Ratlou Municipality. “The project came
about after the discovery of more than
3 000 teenage mothers in the area. We want
to address socio-economic issues
and unemployment.”
Executive manager of the MTN
Foundation, Graham de Vries, said, “Our
JG Afrika, a leading multi-disciplinary engineering and
environmental consultancy, has grown its groundwater
division by acquiring Geowater IQ, a specialist in the field
of geohydrology, water-resource management, research
and other related disciplines.
TOP:
Founder of Geowater IQ Regan Rose has joined JG Afrika’s
groundwater team in KwaZulu-Natal. Children enjoy the novelty of
pumped groundwater for the first time.
Handover of donated machinery
There was big excitement in Logagane Village on Tuesday, 31 January 2017
for community members of the Ratlou Municipality, as Social Development
Deputy Minister, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu, handed over Hydraform
International interlocking brick and blockmaking machinery, donated by the
MTN Foundation and valued at R1,2-million.
partnership started in 2012 and we will
continue to support the social development
initiative. We will provide training for the
Hydraform machinery.”
Hydraform International's sales
executive, Lusanda Zimase, attended the
handover event in Logagane Village and
said, “Hydraform’s building system is
different to the normal bricks that we know,
in that it replaces regularly used bricks and
cement with Hydraform blocks that interlock
and are dry-stacked. A unique feature of
the building system is that it uses soil, to
produce an interlocking soil and cement
block. By taking the world’s oldest known
building material, earth (soil) and giving it
form and durability through Hydraform’s
innovative technology, the company has
developed an earth brick that can reduce
costs and construction times. Hydraform
boasts other benefits such as: cost savings,
empowerment of unskilled people (including
women), a simple system, thermal insulation
qualities, being three times as efficient as
concrete block and twice as efficient as fired
clay bricks, reduced transport costs, local
soil used from project sites and bricks made
where and when needed.”