Blossoms Water Supply Scheme delivers first water to the benefit of Oudtshoorn

Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning said he is very pleased with the news that the Blossoms Water Supply Scheme has recently delivered the first water to the Oudtshoorn Oosbank Reservoir. “The Blossoms project will greatly assist Oudtshoorn with water security, especially in times of extended load shedding,” Minister Bredell said.

The project, with a budget of R47million, provided by the National Department of Water and Sanitation, entailed the equipping of existing deep boreholes into the Table Mountain aquifer and the construction of a 22 km pipeline with a diameter of 315 mm, extending it from the Blossoms wellfield to the water network of Oudtshoorn.

The Western Cape Department of Local Governmental was instrumental to the success of this project, as it supported the Oudtshoorn Municipality with its application for funding, project management and financial reporting as required.

“This project must also be seen in context of the Western Cape’s 15-Year Integrated Drought and Water Response Plan, which was developed to support local governments in planning and budgeting for water security into the future. The Plan includes tools to calculate and compare the best alternatives for each town to match the correct water sources and water infrastructure to meet current and future population and economic growth,” Minister Bredell said.

“This first flow of water is the result of work that started in 2001 when research was initiated to find ways to augment Oudtshoorn’s main source of water, the Raubenheimer Dam. One of these projects was the drilling of 9 deep and 3 monitoring boreholes within the Blossoms Aquifer to find additional water sources to augment the Klein Karoo Rural Water Supply System (KKRWSS),” Bredell explained.

During 2014, wellfield testing was completed to determine a sustainable groundwater yield to supplement the water supply from the existing Raubenheimer dam. It was determined that 60 litres per second, or 5 mega litre per day, can be supplied from 5 boreholes within the existing Blossoms wellfield. The then National Department of Water Affairs approved a Water Usage License application of a total yield of 8 million cubic meters for the ultimate full development of the Blossoms wellfield project. Water quality of the underground source was deemed good, and all applicable environmental impacts were addressed.

The next phase of the wellfield development in the region would include investigation and feasibility studies towards building more storage dams within the Raubenheimer catchment and further development of underground water boreholes in the Dysselsdorp area, Minister Bredell said.