Leemisa Thuseho
THE Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) has planned a six-month total shutdown of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP)’s tunnel system which transfers water to South Africa.
This is to enable the implementation of maintenance and repair works in the tunnels.
The repair works valued at M300 million are expected to run from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025. This will also result in the suspension of electricity generation at the ‘Muela. Hydropower Station. The Lesotho Electrical Company (LEC) would then have to source alternative power supplies, most probably by increasing imports.
Lesotho transfers water to South Africa and generates electricity for itself through the LHWP which is a bi-national project between the government of Lesotho and South Africa. The water transfers would stop for the duration of the maintenance period.
The upcoming planned maintenance and shutdown of the tunnel was announced by the LHDA Chief Executive, Tente Tente, during a press conference at LHDA premises in Maseru on Tuesday.
“As part of the planned maintenance of the key components of the water delivery system; the transfer tunnel (From Katse Dam to ‘Muela) and delivery tunnel (from ‘Muela to Ash River Outfall in South Africa), the LHDA will stop the delivery of water to South Africa and generation of hydro-electric power for Lesotho for six months,” Mr Tente said.
As per the provisions of the LHWP Treaty between the two countries, Mr Tente said LHDA was only responsible for the transfer tunnels within the borders of Lesotho, while their counterparts, the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA), was responsible for the delivery tunnel on the South African side which starts at Caledon River (Mohokare) to Ash River Outfall in the Free State Province. Thus, the TCTA is also expected to do the tunnel maintenance and repair work on their side.
According to Mr Tente, the scheduled outage will address vital repairs identified during a 2019 inspection, including the rehabilitation of steel liners.
“In September to November 2019, there was an inspection of the delivery and transfer tunnels. It was established that the painting on all sections of the tunnels that are steel lined was wearing off and if left for too long, there was a risk that the still lining would corrode,” Mr Tente said.
Mr Tente added the LHDA was planning to use the shutdown of the tunnels to undertake other routine maintenance on the ‘Muela Hydropower Station.
In delivering water to South Africa, Lesotho earns millions of maloti in royalties, which is one of the major sources of revenue for the government of Lesotho. Therefore, the stopping of water delivery will negatively affect the revenue from the royalties.
In a month Lesotho delivers about 65 million cubic meters of water, earning the country an average M100 million in royalties.
Lesotho delivers 780 million cubic meters of water annually.
The LHDA Divisional Manager for Development and Operations, Reentseng Molapo, who oversees the operation and maintenance of the LHDA’s infrastructure, said they already had plans to mitigate the loss of the revenue from the royalties.
“To mitigate the risk of losing more royalties, we are planning to deliver more water before and after the outage,” Molapo said.
“We normally deliver about 780 million cubic meters annually, and the plan is to at least deliver 700 million cubic meters in the nine months before the outage… to achieve that, we plan to increase the monthly delivery of 65 million cubic meters to 80 million cubic meters.”
Meanwhile, the hydropower station remains the largest and most critical source of electricity supply in Lesotho. The halting of electricity generation for six months will result in a shortage in the supply of electricity in the country.
However, Molapo said engagements with other relevant stakeholders, mainly the LEC to make arrangements for alternative electricity supplies were ongoing. They were engaging thoroughly with the government of Lesotho to prepare for that eventuality.
The realistic alternative to ensure adequate electricity supply during the outage will be for Lesotho to increase electricity imports from Mozambique or South Africa.
The M300 million maintenance and repair work in the tunnels in Lesotho will be done by Corrocoat South Africa (Pty) Ltd, which was awarded the tender last year.
