While re-planning the Tugela-Vaal, I came across an article by a geologist, Professor P.E. Matthews of the University of Natal, who pointed out the unusual configuration of the Tugela basin. Each major tributary of the Tugela was at a higher elevation than the one closer to the origin. This characteristic would make it possible to divert water under gravity from the tributaries deeper in Natal towards the low Drakensberg. This article inspired me to plan a canal system where water from the right bank tributaries such as the Moa, Bushman’s and Little Tugela and left bank tributaries such as the Klip, Sundays and Buffalo Rivers could be diverted to the headwaters, enabling a series of hydro-electric power stations. In preparing a paper called “Hydro-electricity, the key to the Multi-Purpose development of the Tugela River” I called in the assistance of Bruno Graber, in charge of Eskom’s hydro division to help with his speciality, Bob Pullen, for his knowledge of hydrology and Monty van Schalkwyk for his geological skills. The paper was presented at the Water Year Symposium in 1970 and drew a tremendous amount of comment. In that paper, I already proposed a pumped-storage scheme to lift the water to the Vaal catchment, which later became the Drakensberg Project. The idea came too late for implementation of the first phase of the Tugela-Vaal. When the planning for the second phase was on the go, I went to see the then Secretary, Jacques Kriel, with the request that he approach Escom for investigating a joint scheme. I think that he thought that the proposal was too grand, and ignored it. Fortunately, a Czech mechanical engineer by the name of Flodec Pyzikowski had hydro-electric knowledge and experience and worked in the Mechanical Division of Water Affairs. When he came into my office in connection with one of the project under my authority, I mentioned the idea to him. He was very enthusiastic and coincidentally, joined Escom shortly after. On his own initiative, he did some further studies and approached his superiors. They saw the merit and then got in touch with Water Affairs. This time it was taken seriously and the rest is history. At a meeting on 2 April 1974, where Dr Straszacker, Chairman, Jan Smith, CEO and a Mr Torr of Escom and Jacques Kriel, Johan du Plessis and I of Water Affairs, it was agreed to implement a joint project. The 1000MW Drakensberg PS scheme replaced the Jagersrust pumping station and rising main. Water from the fore bay was pumped into the Kilburn Dam, which formed the lower reservoir of the PS scheme, while an arm of the Sterkfontein Dam was dammed by the Driekloof Dam to form the upper reservoir. Agreement was reached with Escom that the DWA would build the two dams involved, in exchange for which, the water needed for supplementing the Vaal, would be lifted off-peak and free of charge, except for the cost of the coal burned. The agreement was drafted by T Stoffberg of Escom and myself. Both were of the opinion that the water user and the electricity user were one and the same and that exact division of the benefits was not necessary. One key part of the agreement was the acceptance of a discount rate (6%) for the time value of money, as long running costs were to be compared with early capital costs. When Fanie Botha, then the Minister of Water Affairs, visited the site in company of some of the senior staff of the Department and of the Rand Water Board, shown in the photograph below, he said that he wanted to announce it to get public relations capital out of the proposal. I warned him against this, saying that it had not been proven yet that a 16m wide cavern, in which the machines were to be housed, could be excavated sagely. He ignored it and went ahead with the announcement.
Everybody, including Jacques Kriel, was now proud of the Project, while I could at first not sell it! At one point, an Afrikaans magazine called “Nou” published an interview with me. When sometime afterwards, the English language magazine Personality asked Kriel whether they could interview me as well, he refused, saying to me that Water Affairs projects were team efforts. I then wrote him a note saying that it was no wonder that the public considered Public Servants as grey and anonymous and that private sector individuals such as Henry Olivier were always considered as paragons of engineering knowledge and enterprise!
Because the Drakensberg Project was situated in a very scenic area of the Low Drakensberg below the Oliviershoek Pass and the owners of the affected farm were very keen on conservation, the project gave rise to the first environmental impact study in the Department under the leadership of Dr Paul Roberts. That eventually resulted in a separate division in DWA called Planning Services to which certain other planning sub-divisions such as Survey Services were moved. The owners of the farm referred to above were called Rhein-Weston. They were so concerned about the environment that they used a helicopter to obviate constructing roads to run the farm. They even had a game ranger in their service! Eddie Goister, a landscape architect I recruited in Brussels, as already mentioned above, specialised in these impact assessments. Water Affairs and Escom got very positive press coverage for the initiative.
In preparation of the pumped storage project, Bruno Graber, Herbert Sattler, both of Escom and I were sent to Europe to study a few such projects. We visited the Vianden PS project in Luxemburg, the Rodund II Ps project in Austria, the Langenprozelten PS project in Germany, the Foyers and the Cruachan PS projects in Scotland, the latter two accompanied by Paul Back, a South African engineer with Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners, a major British consultant. We also visited the Voest engineering works in Linz, Austria, where pump-turbines are manufactured. I also made use of the occasion to visit the Obernach laboratory of the Technical University of Munich again.
An important day in my career (3 November 1970) was when Trevor Drust of Binnie and Partners, handed over a copy of the firm’s report on a proposed project to divert upper Orange (Senqu) water to the Vaal River catchment.to the Lesotho Government and the World Bank. This issue will be dealt with in detail lower down.
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