Let's get water onto your land

It depends on far more than hectares: the crop and its peak demand, how far and how high the water has to be moved, what your power situation is, and whether you are building new or working around existing infrastructure. Our online cost estimator will give you a ballpark in a few minutes, and it is the fastest way to find out whether a project is worth taking further. The firm number comes out of the design, where the capital cost is traded off against what the system will cost you to run for the next twenty years.

As a rule of thumb, engineering services on an infrastructure project fall between 5 and 15% of total project capital cost. Where you land depends on the number of design variables and the level of reporting and drawing output you need, so we only price finally once we understand what you are trying to build. We charge in one of three ways.

Well-defined projects with few unknowns are a fixed-price fee based on complexity and the time required for the scope of work. Pipelines, pump stations and irrigation systems fall here, and ballpark costs for these project types are in our cost estimator.

Open-ended or not well-defined projects are charged on a time-and-cost framework, with hourly rates derived with reference to Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) norms. Large scale feasibility studies and flood protection works fall here, as does any project where it is not clear yet what the end result will look like.

Where ongoing services are required we will consider a retainer: a set monthly fee for up to a certain amount of non-transferable time, which makes cash flow predictable for both of us.

No, and this is deliberate. We earn nothing on hardware, so every component we specify is chosen on technical merit and fit for your site. It also means we can compare supplier quotes for you without having a stake in the answer. An irrigation system is a utility, and it is expensive to change once it is in the ground.

Our irrigation work is led by a registered professional engineer, and the engineer you speak to is the engineer on your project. Designs are informed by the South African Irrigation Institute Norms and Standards and the Irrigation Design Manual, with FAO56 from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as a further resource. We carry full professional indemnity insurance, currently underwritten by Hollard, and we contract on the Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) short form of agreement. If a system we designed is not operating as intended, we will troubleshoot it and train your team on it at no charge.

Generally within two weeks, depending on current workload. You get a programme with the proposal, so the timeline is agreed before you commit to anything.

Where the site is, what you want to grow, roughly how many hectares, and whatever you know about your water and power. If some of that is unknown, establishing it is often the first thing we help you do.