As you are no doubt aware from previous communications, the trustees have been investigating the viability of a sinking a borehole in the estate for the past several months, and the purpose of this post is to prepare the homeowners for the formal proposal documents which you will be receiving soon.
In summary, the project is expected to cost approximately R390,000 (with some contingency built in) and the trustees would like to raise a special levy of R13,000 per property, to be paid over the course of ten months at R1,300 per month, from 1 June.
This will pay for the drilling of the borehole as well as all of the infrastructure required. The supplier would provide a new “mains supply” down each road supplying a steady standard pressure of borehole water to each home in the estate with individual metering.
Owners will be able to choose whether they want the water to terminate to an outdoor tap, to a backup override system (which allows you to choose to use municipal or borehole water by a simple turn of two taps) or a both. There will be small differences in cost between these choices, which we will update you on as soon as we have firm pricing in place, but is not expected to alter the levy materially.
We plan to install five 5000 liter water tanks, two of which will be used for cleaning, correcting PH levels and filtering the borehole water. The final three 5000 liter tanks will be used for storage of filtered clean water, ready for household use. The suppliers deem this water fit for household use, however, they advise getting a small reverse osmosis system installed should you want this supply in your home to be potable. They are able to quote on this separately per household (but for indication the cost for a system providing 250 liters of drinking water per day is approximately R9,000). This should allow properties that want to operate completely “off the grid” to do so.
The indications from the hydrologist’s report is that he believes we should be able to get a borehole which is able to yield 30,000 liters per day, which should be more than enough for the estate’s needs, for both communal and private areas. The indications are that water quality is also very good. The hydrologist’s report and the supplier quotes are attached below. There is, unfortunately, no guarantee that we will hit sufficient water, nor on the quality of the water, but we’re optimistic.
The proposed location of the borehole is at the end of River Walk, and the tanks would be in the common area to the east. We would take care to ensure that no property’s views are negatively impacted, and would work with the owners (of 9 River Walk and 18 Oakwood particularly) to ensure that everything is done to minimise any negative impact on owners and residents.
In order for this project to be approved, we will need for the estate owners to approve the motion. We will be sending out formal approval documents shortly, via email.
In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions and we will do our best to answer them.
Questions from Members:
- What is the Water quality data (SANS 241) of the samples taken in the initial study and purification / treatment as proposed for site OE_ds 1.
- The water can only be tested after the borehole has been drilled, but the hydrologist expects it to be high quality.
- Details of potential water quantity available at the proposed site.
- Expected yield of 30,000 litres per day
- Are there plans to integrate the borehole into the irrigation system for non-drought use?
- Absolutely. We will need to comply with the City’s restrictions, but we definitely would like to use if for irrigation once it is allowed.
Attachments
Hydrologist’s Report
Borehole Quote
Classic Conservation Quote