Lesotho Highlands Project 'on track' - Mahlobo
Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo says the department is satisfied with the quality of the maintenance work done during the Lesotho Highlands Water Project.
The Department provided an update on the ongoing maintenance work on Friday.
The tunnel has been out of operation for a month due to repairs on worn-out pipes and other essential maintenance tasks, which are expected to be completed by March 2025.
The 38km tunnel transports water from Lesotho to South Africa, supplying Gauteng, Free State, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and North West.
Briefing the media on Friday, Mahlobo said water is still being supplied to various sectors across the two countries.
"The ability of the two nations to cooperate and share their resources, because as Southern Africa, we remain a water-scarce region. There are rivers that flow in between the neighbouring countries, whether it is South Africa, the Kingdom of Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana.
"This transboundary cooperation is one of the things that we need to be able to promote, because in the parts of the world, there is issues of conflict around the issues of sharing of water. The other point that I want to indicate is the win-win benefits that we have. In Lesotho, they are able to have a hydropower station just to power the system, it's a clean energy on the question of water.
"At the very same time, this site was able to supply for domestic use and other economic uses, whether it is agriculture, industries, powering a number of communities and provinces. The water that comes here, it touches more than 80 million beneficiaries because it touches the province here of Free State, it touches Northern Cape, North West and many more.”
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