MBB Consulting Engineers were appointed by the University of KwaZulu Natal’s (UKZN) South African Research Chair Initiative (SARChI) for Climate Change and Waste Management, to design and provide construction management services for a vegetable packhouse and composting station in the Swayimane Suburb, within the uMshwathi Local Municipality.
MBB’s work included the design of the bulk water supply, the drainage and electrical system, ablution facilities, masonry walls, the roof (timber trusses and corrugated iron sheeting), and we supervised the stripping of the packhouse foundation and construction.
The vegetable packhouse is anticipated to have a throughput of approximately two tons per day and it is designed to process seasonal crops such as amadumbe (taro), sweet potatoes, avocado, maize, spinach, cabbage, peppers, and lettuce. The packhouse is expected to benefit 300 local farmers.
This project forms part of the broader Umgeni Resilience Project (URP) which aims to address challenges resulting from climate change in KwaZulu-Natal, specifically in the uMgungundlovu District Municipality (UMDM). The main objective is to reduce the vulnerability of small-scale farmers and the community to the impact of climate change, resulting from a greater frequency of flash floods and variability in annual rainfall.
In the uMgungundlovu District Municipality, some of the small-scale enterprises identified by this initiative, include small-scale crop production, commercial forestry, dairy farming, sugar cane and traditional livestock grazing. The URP has adopted a multipronged approach, with key focuses on gender, social, ecological and climate change. This requires several methods of implementation at different times of the project.
- Component: Early Warning Systems – Early warning and response systems improve the preparedness and adaptive capacity of local communities and small-scale farmers, drawing on and integrating scientific and local knowledge.
- Component: Climate-proof Settlements – A combination of ecological and engineering solutions reduces the vulnerability of communities to existing and anticipated impacts of climate variability and change.
- Component: Climate-resilient agriculture – Small-scale farmers have improved resilience and reduced vulnerability to existing and anticipated impacts of climate variability and change.
- Component: Capacity building and learning – Capacity building and sharing of lessons and policy recommendations facilitate scaling up and replication.
It is a great privilege to be a part of a project that will benefit our local communities extensively and we look forward to seeing the fruits of the Umgeni Resilience Project (URP).
