SA avoids water outages during Lesotho Highlands shutdown
South Africa has emerged from a major infrastructure shutdown without suffering water supply shortages, following the completion of maintenance at the Lesotho Highlands Water Tunnel.
Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina officially reopened the 38-kilometre tunnel on Sunday, after it was closed for seven months to allow for critical maintenance work.
The tunnel transports water from Lesotho into South Africa and feeds into the Vaal River Integrated System, a key water source for at least five provinces.
Percy Sechemane, CEO of the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority, the entity responsible for operating the tunnel, praised preemptive efforts that helped prevent a crisis.
“The reason why we were confident that there wouldn’t be any crisis in South Africa is because the Vaal River Integrated System is made up of 14 dams. Some are balancing dams, and some are storage dams.
"So we had, as South Africa, pre-empted the risk that we needed to mitigate, ensuring we pump enough water into those storage dams."
Majodina, meanwhile, emphasised that water supply challenges in communities are not the result of inadequate bulk water provision.
"The challenges of water supply have nothing to do with bulk water supply. I say that today, tomorrow, I said it yesterday, and I’m going to say that in the next three to five years.
"The water that you see running down the street is the water that comes from the bulk water supply. We have supplied bulk, but the challenge is the reticulation and provision thereof, which is not our mandate as the Department of Water and Sanitation.
"We'll keep on working with all our municipalities to close the leaks, because what makes water run down the streets is the leaks that are there across the country."
The tunnel’s reopening coincided with Africa Day, which Majodina described as a symbolic milestone in regional cooperation and water security efforts.
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