Another delay in the expected completion date to raise the existing 43m wall of the Clanwilliam Dam on the Olifants River by 13m has seen the estimated cost of the project nearly double since it was first announced in 2013.

Business Day reports that the raising of the wall has the potential to unlock R1.8bn of on-farm investment for the West Coast region by allowing for about 6 000 additional hectares of high-value crops to be irrigated.

That's according to Jannie Strydom, CEO of Agri Western Cape.

He said this would also create an estimated 9 000 new direct and indirect jobs.

The MEC for Agriculture in the Western Cape, Dr Ivan Meyer, said that due to delays in procurement processes, the expected completion date for the project had been pushed back further from 2023 to April 2025.

The project was initially meant to have been completed in May 2018 at a cost of R2,2bn.

After initially delaying the expected completion date to 2023, the Department of Water & Sanitation (DWS) revised the estimated cost of the project to R3.5bn.

‘However, after more than three years of limbo, we expect the total costs to exceed R4bn,’ said Van der Westhuizen.

Meyer said that construction of the wall was on hold while only 12% of the project had been completed to date.

‘(DWS) is now in the process of considering a new implementation model that involves the appointment of the Development Bank of Southern Africa as an implementing agent to carry out the project,’ he said.

Full Business Day report