Kingdom holds keys to our taps
High and Dry | Vital project to feed Vaal Dam hit by delays, prompting concern over future of Gauteng’s water supply
SOUTH Africa is looking to Lesotho to keep taps running, but delays in the R22.9-billion second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project have put the country’s water security at risk.
Some 40% of Gauteng’s water came from the 30-year-old first phase of the project, said Department of Water and Sanitation spokesman Sputnik Ratau. More than 665 million cubic metres of water, enough to fill a quarter of the Vaal Dam, was delivered between January and October.
Project officials have committed to providing South Africa with 780 million cubic metres each year for the next three years.
South Africa’s dependence, especially that of Gauteng, is so great that without Lesotho water the country would be in “big trouble”, said Ratau.
that But even experts Lesotho’swarn water is not enough. Demand in Gauteng has outstripped supply for most of the decade.
Phase two’s delays caused the project’s completion date to be moved from 2017 to 2020, and now until 2025.
“It has placed the entire Vaal system in jeopardy,” said University of the Free State water expert Anthony Turton.
“The Vaal sustains 60% of the national economy and 45% of the total population. The delay means that, irrespective of what happens on the weather side, the Gauteng economy will be water insecure at least until 2025. In a nutshell, 60% of the national economy will remain at risk until 2025.”
The Sunday Times was briefed this week on phase two, a multibillion-rand infrastructure project in which an extra 490 million cubic metres will be pumped from the Polihali Dam, via the Katse Dam in Lesotho, into the Vaal Dam. At a combined 1.27billion cubic metres of water a year from the two phases of the project, this is enough water to fill half the Vaal Dam each year.
Ratau said it was critical that South Africa got the additional water, which will come at a cost. “The cost at completion, in about 2025, will be in the region of R22.9billion.
“According to the agreement [between Lesotho and South Africa], any costs of water transfer will be borne 100% by South Africa,” said Lesotho Highlands Development
Authority spokesman Masilo Phakoe.
Tenders for the advanced infrastructure, including the roads and power lines, have been awarded.
The contracts for the 165m dam wall and the 38km tunnel that will carry the water from Polihali to Katse are expected to be awarded only in January.
Water experts are worried that the delays, which will mean phase two coming online only in nine years at the earliest, will have lasting implications.
University of the Witwatersrand professor Mike Muller, a former senior water affairs official, said: “The whole area supplied by the integrated Vaal River system will be at serious risk if we suffer a [continued] drought. Because of the growth of the population . . . this will require far more stringent restrictions than are currently being imposed. This will inevitably affect economic activity as well as domestic users. It may result in investors not being able to invest.”
Chris Herold, president of the South African Institution of Civil Engineering, agreed.
“The delay is extremely serious. Persistent failure of municipalities to reduce their water demand by 15% . . . means the Vaal River system went into deficit, compared with steep rising demands, from about 2010. Even at the initial commissioning date [of 2020], the yield of the Polihali Dam would have been 90% committed by 2020.
“The longer we leave it, the graver our water security because water demands will continue, especially if our economy gets out of the doldrums,” he said.
The delays around the project were largely due to the awarding of contracts for the construction of the Polihali Dam and the tunnel that will take water to Katse.
The tenders were released in October 2014 and companies shortlisted in early 2015. However, the process was redone after unhappiness from Water and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane over BEE components.
The new shortlist has been drawn up and the contracts are set to be awarded in December and January.