South Africa has announced it has secured a loan of US $161M to be used in implementing phase two of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP).
This loan agreement was signed during the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg between Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority’s (TCTA) and New Development Bank (NDB). Created in 1984, the LHWP was designed to have five phases over 30 years and transfer up to 2 billion cubic meters of water annually from Lesotho to South Africa’s commercial hubs and industries like Sasol and Eskom. Phase one started delivering water in 1996.
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LHWP
The second phase of the project involves construction of several dams including the Polihali Dam to be built downstream of the confluence of the Khubelu and Senqu Rivers in the Mokhotlong district in the Eastern highlands of Lesotho. It will allow the formation of a reservoir on the Orange and Khubelu Rivers over an area of 5,053 hectares, with a total storage capacity of 2,325 million m³.
A 38km long water transfer tunnel which will link the Polihali reservoir to the Katse reservoir will also be built. The dam will be supported by a saddle dam, which is an auxiliary reservoir built to confine the reservoir created by a primary dam, either to allow for higher water elevation and storage or to limit the extent of the reservoir in order to increase its yield.
The water project is expected to put in place the physical and managerial capacity for Lesotho to harness the surplus water of the Senqu/Orange River and its tributaries in order to effect the delivery of specified quantities of water to the designated outlet into the Republic of South Africa and by utilizing such delivery system to generate hydropower in the Kingdom of Lesotho.
