Firm that built City’s flawed new water plant in hot H2O

WINDHOEK’S new Goreangab water reclamation plant is a dud, the City claims in a High Court case against the company contracted to build the plant at a cost of close to N$100 million.

First the new plant was completed almost two years late. Then, once it started operating, it produced significantly less water than it was supposed to while using significantly more chemicals to purify the water going through it.And now the new plant, which was supposed to produce 21 000 cubic metres of purified water a day, has been standing idle since January 26 because a number of design flaws have been detected.In the meantime, the insurance that was supposed to cover the costs of defects for two years after the plant’s completion has run out – just as the city prepares to launch a N$37,3 million claim against the South African-registered company DB Thermal (Pty) Ltd that was contracted to build the plant.The City is accusing it of having been “grossly negligent” when it set up the plant.These claims are made in court documents placed before Judge Sylvester Mainga in the High Court in Windhoek last week, when he was asked to issue initial orders to attach assets that DB Thermal has in Namibia in order to establish and confirm the High Court’s jurisdiction over the company.DB Thermal’s Divisional Manager Cooling, H.Stiehler, who was the project manager for the consortium contracted to build the water plant, declined to comment on the case when he was contacted at his office in Johannesburg on Tuesday.In the court documents, Piet du Pisani from the Windhoek Municipality’s Strategic Executive:Infrastructure, Water and Technical Services, sets out the woes that have befallen the new water plant.Du Pisani related that the contract to design and build the water plant at a cost of N$92 million, plus another estimated N$7,3 million in taxes, had been awarded to DB Thermal in May 1999.It was supposed to hand over a completed plant, ready to produce, by the end of September 2000.But first DB Thermal started its construction work eight weeks late.Eventually it handed over the plant on August 6 2002 – some two years late, Du Pisani pointed out.”The plant contains various material defects, and has either produced an output of drinking water well below the required volume or has been totally out of commission for lengthy periods of time,” Du Pisani states.He revealed that the plant had been operating from August 6 2002 to January 26 2004, when problems with the pressure switch absorption (PSA) plant – a part of the plant where oxygen is produced to make ozone that is pumped into the water during the purification process – brought it to a standstill.There had been two explosions at the PSA plant and there were grave concerns over safety, according to Du Pisani.He stated:”It is evident that the plant is not designed for continuous use in a mission critical industrial application.This is so because of obvious design errors.”According to Du Pisani, it would cost some N$5,5 million to design, build and deliver a new, proper PSA plant.It would also cost close to N$6,1 million to rectify other design flaws in another part of the plant.These flaws were in the membrane plant, which Du Pisani described as the final step in the water purification process.He alleged that when the plant was run at full flow, the membrane plant had on average only managed to deliver some 14 per cent less than the 21 000 cubic metres of water a day that the plant was supposed to deliver.Windhoek’s total daily water consumption is between 50 000 and 64 000 cubic metres.Du Pisani further claimed that DB Thermal had guaranteed that during the plant’s initial lifetime of twenty years, the quantities of chemicals needed in the purification process would be at certain levels guaranteed in the contract between the company and Windhoek City.Although the quality of the water produced by the plant was acceptable, it had been consuming quantities of chemicals well in excess of the levels that had been stipulated in the contract, Du Pisani continued.It is on that score that the dispute between the City and DB Thermal takes on more serious dimensions.Du Pisani claimed that the cost of that excess consumption of chemicals would run to N$25,7 million.He went on to claim that DB Thermal’s directors had further been grossly negligent in failing to ensure that their company remained covered by insurance for any claims that the City may have had against them.As a result, the City may sue the directors in their personal capacity to hold them each personally responsible for the multimillion-dollar claim that the City is now planning to institute against the company.In terms of the order that Judge Mainga granted the Municipality last Monday, the City was given until September 9 to lodge the case for damages of about N$37,3 million against the company.Part of that case may be that the City would want the court to order that DB Thermal’s directors between May 1999 and the present would be held personally liable for the payment of that N$37,3 million to the City.The City was the only party represented before the court when the case was heard on an urgent basis last week.Then, once it started operating, it produced significantly less water than it was supposed to while using significantly more chemicals to purify the water going through it.And now the new plant, which was supposed to produce 21 000 cubic metres of purified water a day, has been standing idle since January 26 because a number of design flaws have been detected.In the meantime, the insurance that was supposed to cover the costs of defects for two years after the plant’s completion has run out – just as the city prepares to launch a N$37,3 million claim against the South African-registered company DB Thermal (Pty) Ltd that was contracted to build the plant.The City is accusing it of having been “grossly negligent” when it set up the plant.These claims are made in court documents placed before Judge Sylvester Mainga in the High Court in Windhoek last week, when he was asked to issue initial orders to attach assets that DB Thermal has in Namibia in order to establish and confirm the High Court’s jurisdiction over the company.DB Thermal’s Divisional Manager Cooling, H.Stiehler, who was the project manager for the consortium contracted to build the water plant, declined to comment on the case when he was contacted at his office in Johannesburg on Tuesday.In the court documents, Piet du Pisani from the Windhoek Municipality’s Strategic Executive:Infrastructure, Water and Technical Services, sets out the woes that have befallen the new water plant.Du Pisani related that the contract to design and build the water plant at a cost of N$92 million, plus another estimated N$7,3 million in taxes, had been awarded to DB Thermal in May 1999.It was supposed to hand over a completed plant, ready to produce, by the end of September 2000.But first DB Thermal started its construction work eight weeks late.Eventually it handed over the plant on August 6 2002 – some two years late, Du Pisani pointed out.”The plant contains various material defects, and has either produced an output of drinking water well below the required volume or has been totally out of commission for lengthy periods of time,” Du Pisani states.He revealed that the plant had been operating from August 6 2002 to January 26 2004, when problems with the pressure switch absorption (PSA) plant – a part of the plant where oxygen is produced to make ozone that is pumped into the water during the purification process – brought it to a standstill.There had been two explosions at the PSA plant and there were grave concerns over safety, according to Du Pisani.He stated:”It is evident that the plant is not designed for continuous use in a mission critical industrial application.This is so because of obvious design errors.”According to Du Pisani, it would cost some N$5,5 million to design, build and deliver a new, proper PSA plant.It would also cost close to N$6,1 million to rectify other design flaws in another part of the plant.These flaws were in the membrane plant, which Du Pisani described as the final step in the water purification process.He alleged that when the plant was run at full flow, the membrane plant had on average only managed to deliver some 14 per cent less than the 21 000 cubic metres of water a day that the plant was supposed to deliver.Windhoek’s total daily water consumption is between 50 000 and 64 000 cubic metres.Du Pisani further claimed that DB Thermal had guaranteed that during the plant’s initial lifetime of twenty years, the quantities of chemicals needed in the purification process would be at certain levels guaranteed in the contract between the company and Windhoek City.Although the quality of the water produced by the plant was acceptable, it had been consuming quantities of chemicals well in excess of the levels that had been stipulated in the contract, Du Pisani continued.It is on that score that the dispute between the City and DB Thermal takes on more serious dimensions.Du Pisani claimed that the cost of that excess consumption of chemicals would run to N$25,7 million.He went on to claim that DB Thermal’s directors had further been grossly negligent in failing to ensure that their company remained covered by insurance for any claims that the City may have had against them.As a result, the City may sue the directors in their personal capacity to hold them each personally responsible for the multimillion-dollar claim that the City is now planning to institute against the company.In terms of the order that Judge Mainga granted the Municipality last Monday, the City was given until September 9 to lodge the case for damages of about N$37,3 million against the company.Part of that case may be that the City would want the court to order that DB Thermal’s directors between May 1999 and the present would be held personally liable for the payment of that N$37,3 million to the City.The City was the only party represented before the court when the case was heard on an urgent basis last week.