Decision possible this year on Lesotho Highlands water scheme

19 April 2010, Engineering News
URL: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/lesotho-highlands-water-project-plans-to-implement-phase-two-2010-04-16

Johannesburg:  Lesotho Highlands Water Project managing utility, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), is preparing for phase two of the project, which is critical to Lesotho's economy and South Africa's water supply, and has completed a prefeasibility study.  LHDA acting CEO Peter Makuta says that the South African and Lesotho governments must still sign off the second phase, but this should take place by the second half of this year.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is the result of a treaty between the two governments and provides water to Gauteng, South Africa's industrial heartland, through a system of tunnels and dams from the high water yield in the highlands water system. The project has been implemented in a number of phases and phase 1A and 1B, which included building the Katse and Mohale dams and their tunnel systems, have been completed.

An important component of the project is hydropower generation for Lesotho, which resulted in a hydropower station, completed in 1998, and in commercial operation for about 13 years. He says that the power generation output of this station no longer satisfies the total demand of Lesotho, especially in winter when the country experiences subzero temperatures.

South African development finance institution the Developmental Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) has funded a number of projects in the Southern Africa Development Community region, including the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.

Makuta says that DBSA has provided about R1-billion to the project since it started in the late 1980s. The bank has been one of the most important partners in the development of the project phases and has supported about 30 individual project contracts, from roads to bridges, camps and social programmes.

The project has had social and environmental effects on the local communities in the vicinity of the dams and has affected the livelihood of local people near the dam sites, as some communities were displaced or separated. The DBSA has help fund bridges and supply boats and canoes to mitigate the effects of the project on local communities, he says.

In addition, the road networking system supplied as a result of the project has improved the lives of surrounding communities and provides easier journeys to Maseru, the country's capital.

Further, a compensation policy exists for households affected by the project, whereby they were relocated if they lived in the project area and they are provided with water supply, sanitation facilities, roads, schools and electricity, if the infrastructure exists nearby. LHDA Mohale dam field operations manager Richard Ramoeletsi says that, to date, 321 households have been resettled.

He adds that other losses, where a household is no worse off that before the project's implementation, may only qualify for yearly compensation. This yearly compensation is used for the development and communities work together under a local legal entity, or cooperative, to use the payments for local improvement projects.

Makuta says that the project has also affected the river ecosystems and people use the rivers downstream from the dams. To protect these ecosystems, the LHDA has instream flow requirements and policies that dictate that they have to maintain certain flows downstream so that the ecosystems are not affected. These environmental and social measures will also be implemented in the second phase of the project.