Moroke Sekoboto
THE Lesotho Lowlands Water Development Project (LLWDP)’s top brass have updated parliament on the multi-million maloti project intended to supply Leribe district with potable water.
Members of both the Senate and National Assembly had been invited to meet with the LLWDP’s senior officials last week for the update on the project. Only one Senator attended though.
The LLWDP recently awarded M567 million worth of tenders under phase two of its lowlands water project to supply critical zones of Leribe district with clean drinking water.
Leribe’s economic zones, Maputsoe and Hlotse, and surrounding villages, which have suffered extreme water shortages over the years, as well as parts of semi-arid Mafeteng and Mohale’s Hoek districts south of capital Maseru city stand to benefit from the project.
The project is being financed by Lesotho’s development partners namely World Bank, European Union, and the European Investment Bank under the EU Water Sector Financing.
The water ministry’s Deputy Principal Secretary, Lisema Lekhooana, told the legislators that Prime Minister Sam Matekane’s government was committed to making potable water available to every Mosotho.
The LLWDP’s Phase II project would improve water availability in the key towns of Leribe district as well as surrounding villages along the main transmission works.
About 15 legislators from the ruling Revolution for Prosperity (RFP) and the opposition All Basotho Convention (ABC) and Democratic Congress (DC) attended the meeting. ABC was represented by its deputy-leader, Pinki Manamolela. On behalf of government was Public Service Minister, Steven Mputi, while Mots’oane Moeketsi attended on behalf of the National Assembly’s Natural Resources Cluster Portfolio Committee.
Conspicuous by their absence were all senators except for one, Chieftainess ‘Makholu Moshoeshoe, who introduced herself as their representative. She attended the meeting briefly and left.
Ms Moshoeshoe explained to the meeting that her Senate colleagues were held up at a meeting with His Majesty King Letsie III at Thaba Bosiu.
Meanwhile, Mr Lekhooana said government had completed Phase I of the LLWDP project which saw the construction of Metolong Dam that supplies Maseru Urban, Roma and Teyateyaneng in Berea district with clean drinking water.
On the pipeline, Mr Lekhooana said, was the construction of Phase-III of the LLWDP project targeted at supplying Butha-Buthe district’s Ha-Belo industrial area with water.
“The LLWDP is now working towards Phase III which will supply Butha-Buthe as the Belo industrial area will require constant water supplies,” Mr Lekhooana said.
“The government will be left with only Quthing as we are still looking for its funding.”
LLWDP-II is the spin-off of LLWDP-I, a project which involved construction of the Metolong Dam, erecting structures such as a water treatment plant, storage tanks and a conveyance system to supply parts of the Lesotho Lowlands.
Metolong Dam whose construction kicked off in 2013 and ended in 2015, has been supplying drinking water to Maseru Urban, Roma and Teyateyaneng in Berea, for almost nine years now.
Metolong will also be soon supplying a further twenty-three villages around the Lekokoaneng area, also in Berea district, with clean drinking water.
This after the Ministry of Natural Resources recently contracted Mango Tree Construction to build connecting water supply pipes from Metolong to the twenty-three villages at a cost of M40 million. Construction is expected to take eight months and create over 50 jobs for the local community.
The project is being overseen by the LLWDP and the Lesotho Lowlands Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (LLRWSS) project.
LLWDP-II’s Project Manager, Mathealira Lerotholi, told the legislators they wanted to improve the operational performance of the Water and Sewerage Company (WASCO) and rehabilitate its water distribution networks to increase availability, reliability, and access to water for domestic, agricultural, and industrial purposes to support economic development and public health.
Senator Moshoeshoe, for whose sake the program was disrupted so she could speak before leaving, said traditional leaders fully supported the LLWDP projects as they would change the livelihoods of Basotho.
“We are happy with the progress. What we need from you (LLWDP) is to hire residents of the areas you are operating from. You must also inform us about contractors operating in our area. They must not come unannounced because we can’t hear from our subordinates that there is construction in our areas…without any prior knowledge,” Ms Moshoeshoe said.
For his part parliament’s Natural Resources Cluster Portfolio Committee chairperson, Mr Motṧoane, lauded the LLWDP for “coming clean” about foreign contractors engaged for the project. That would help in probing contractors accused of abusing communities, he said, while urging the LLWDP to ensure fair compensation to communities displaced by the project.
