Lesotho Highlands Water Project

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project ( German: Lesotho Highlands Water Project, Sesotho: Metsi a lihlaba ) is a dam project in the interior of the Kingdom of Lesotho, which supplies the South African United Gauteng region around the city of Johannesburg with water. 1986 was signed by the then Foreign Minister of Lesotho and South Africa the contract that should govern the construction of the dam project and the associated water export. Building work was begun about 1989.

Hydrological background

The pent-up rivers belong to the basin of the Orange River, which is called in Lesotho Senqu. The Senqu rises in the northeastern mountains of Lesotho and flows west through South Africa and Namibia to the Atlantic. Although the mountain region of Lesotho represents only five percent of the catchment area of the Orange River, it supplies about 50 percent of the water. The project is therefore so useful because the arid region of Gauteng, which receives little annual rainfall, from the nearby humid Lesotho Highlands water can relate through natural gravity.

Project Overview

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project has primarily to secure the water supply of Gauteng goal. Furthermore, the diverted water is used for generating electrical energy. Of the original five planned dams two ( Katse and Mohale Dam Dam ) have been created so far.

The project plan is divided into four sections that describe the construction of facilities for the project:

• Phase 1A: Construction of the Katse Dam and the 82 km long transfer tunnel through the Malotiberge in the Gauteng region. The transport of water via a natural slope. The Muela hydroelectric power station in the north of Lesotho created with this water has a capacity of 72 megawatts.
• Phase 1B: Construction of Mohaledamm and the 32 km long connecting tunnel between the Mohalereservoir and Katsereservoir. The water also follows a natural slope here.
• Phase 2: Mashaidamm and connecting tunnel to Katsereservoir
• Phase 3: Tsoelikedamm and connecting tunnel to Mashaidamm
• Phase 4: Ntoahaedamm and connecting tunnels to the river Tsoelike

Only Phase 1 has been completed to date for Phase 2 studies, however, are already being prepared, the test a implementation of the plans. The completed phase 1, the flow rate of the project is 30 cubic meters per second. A completion of all phases would increase the capacity to approximately 70 cubic meters per second. With the export of water generates monthly Lesotho Maloti 15 million, equivalent to 2.08 million euros. The revenue thus account for 1.56% of the gross domestic product.

The reservoirs are characterized by more than 100 meters high dams and narrow, elongated shapes due to the deep river valleys.

Effects on human health and the environment

The construction of the dams relocations were necessary. The resettled households Phase 1A have still not planned standard of living. The project was controversial in the 1980s, as it is the economic dependence of Lesotho from South Africa, which at that time still had the apartheid system, reinforced.

During the project, citizens of Lesotho and South Africans were involved in the construction work. However, South Africans were better paid, which led in 1996 to a workers' uprising, which was finally put down by force by the government of Lesotho. This incident cost five striking workers life.

In order to enable the construction work, was accompanied by a infrastructural development of the country with the project. It was now possible to traverse to some modern roads the Highlands.

A danger which basically goes along with storage projects is the " reservoir induced seismicity ," ie earthquakes that occur with the filling of the reservoirs. 1995 and 1996 occurred in the vicinity of the Katse Dam several times smaller quake, which also destroyed houses among others. Due to the earthquake, a 1.5 -kilometer-long crack in the earth of the village Mapeleng who made uninhabitable several houses arose. It was also reported water sources dried up after the quake.

The project from the South African perspective

South Africa has on average annual rainfall of 497 millimeters, which is about half of the global average. The precipitation is distributed over arid and humid areas, so that for most parts of South Africa's water scarcity. This is the reason why, especially in South Africa by many dams drinking water is dammed. However, the demand for water in South Africa is increasing steadily. Fraud 22.4 billion cubic meters of it, it was for the year 2010 water demand of 25.9 billion cubic meters predicted in 1990. The maximum amount of usable water is estimated at 39 billion cubic meters per year, so that more and more dams are planned.

The increase in water demand in the region Gauteng is not only based on the daily required water consumption, but also on the wasteful use of water resources. In the affluent suburbs of Johannesburg and Pretoria, a large part of the water is used for the filling of swimming pools. In some cafes temporarily water sprays are used to make the warm weather on the terrace for guests bearable. The water pipes in the region have leaks, from which valuable drinking water leaking into the groundwater. But by the industry in the metropolitan area, the groundwater is not good in quality. The residents of the Johannesburg district of Alexandra criticized early 1998, the time-consuming project for fear of rising water prices. The purpose of the project has been questioned because of the leaks. The residents of Alexandra looked more sense is to repair the existing water lines so that an import of water is unnecessary.