Damen Shipyards Cape Town (DSCT) welcomed on Thursday, November 23rd over 50 invitees from across the Southern African dredging sector to its yard in the Port of Cape Town for a one-day seminar on dredging.
The guest list included representatives from a wide range of companies with an interest in dredging; encompassing those that supply dredging services, those that employ dredging services, and various government agencies.
The program ran from 9am to 4pm and included a presentation, lunch and a demonstration of a DOP dredge pump. There were also Q&A sessions at various intervals to ensure that any queries were swiftly answered.
The opening address was delivered by Sefale Montsi, a non-executive director and board member of DSCT, and Benny Bhali, Sales and Marketing Executive at DSCT. Andrew Mukandila from the Department of Trade and Industry, Ms Bonnie Horbach, Consul General, Kingdom of the Netherlands, and Riyaadh Kara from the Department of Public Works, also spoke at the event.
At the event was also a delegation from the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA). The agency is responsible for the implementation of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which involves the construction of a number of dams and reservoirs, and its representatives welcomed the opportunity to meet with participants in the dredging industry and discuss its future requirements.
These were then followed by a series of presentations covering techniques, technology and current issues involving maintenance dredging (Arthro Petersen, TNPA Dredging) and capital dredging (Selvan Pillay, TNPA Dredging), dredging equipment (Olivier Marcus, Damen Dredging Equipment) and dredging services (Tom Steenman, Damen Services).
After lunch, the guests had the opportunity to see a Damen DOP 150 Submersible Dredge Pump in action from a mounting on the quay wall. This was made possible by the cooperation of James Tucker and his team from T&T Marine, Southern Africa’s leading dredging and marine contractor.
Due to the positive response to the seminar from the industry, DSCT is now considering making the seminar an annual event.