No extension for R53bn Lesotho water project — govt
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina stated that the South African government will not grant further extensions to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, Phase II.
Majodina and Deputy Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation Seiso Mohai, visited the mountain Kingdom over the weekend for an oversight visit to the dam under construction.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is a joint infrastructure project between South Africa and the Kingdom of Lesotho, involving the construction of a network of tunnels and dams to transfer water from the Orange–Senqu River in the Lesotho Highlands to South Africa.
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To date, the project, primarily funded by the South African government, has already spent over R21 billion.
The project was estimated to cost taxpayers R8 billion in 2008; however, it has since ballooned to R53 billion by 2025.
The construction of the phase two project started in 2022 with work at the Polihali Dam and transfer tunnel, with a completion date set for 2028/2029.
The implementing agency is Lesotho Highlands Development Agency (LHDA), in partnership with South Africa's Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA).
The 38 km tunnel transports water from Lesotho to South Africa, serving the provinces of Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, and North West.
“If you are running behind schedule, you must have a clear turnaround plan on how and when you are going to catch up, because we cannot afford to delay this project any further,” Majodina said
Majodina said the department is following up on every cent spent on the project to ensure transparency and accountability.
This comes after the Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation raised concerns about the project's cost with the Auditor-General earlier this year.
Parliament noted weaknesses in governance and oversight created by the dual-implementation model between the TCTA and the LHDA.
The project will impact approximately 2,400 families, who are settled on the riverbanks, and they have now been forced out of their lands, along with their livestock, to make way for the project.
LHDA CEO Tente Tente said so far, 24 houses have been relocated out of 300
The Lesotho government is currently constructing 105 houses for the affected residents who agreed to be relocated, while some residents want to be compensated instead.
"We have land that is affected by the project, we have over 5000 hectares that will be underwater, that was the land used by the communities for their livelihoods,"
"The residents get to choose where they want to be resettled, and it is not the department that dictates where they want to be relocated," Tente said
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) Treaty, signed in 1986, is currently being renegotiated to address significant delays, governance flaws, cost overruns, inadequate compensation for affected communities, and the issue of fairer royalties.
The project, which involves international and local companies, has thus far created 16,000 jobs in the landlocked country.
The project was awarded to Kopano Ke Matla, a joint venture between the Chinese-owned companies Yellow River Company and Sinohydro Bureau 3, and the South African company Unik Civil Engineering.
Once completed, the Phase Two dam, called Pulihali, will supply water to the existing Katse reservoir, which provides drinking water to South Africa.
Katse was completed in 1997. This is the initial project, which supplies water to South Africa and generates hydropower for Lesotho. The reservoir can hold over 1.95 billion cubic meters of water.
The water transfer component of Phase II includes a 165-metre-high, concrete-faced rockfill dam at Polihali, located downstream of the confluence of the Khubelu and Senqu-Orange rivers, as well as a 38-kilometre, concrete-lined gravity tunnel linking the Polihali and Katse reservoirs.
Once completed, Phase II will increase water transfers from Lesotho to South Africa by an additional 490 million cubic metres per year, raising total deliveries from 780 million cubic metres to 1.26 billion cubic metres annually through the Integrated Vaal River System.
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