War room for Lesotho tunnel shutdown

By Staff Reporter

QWAQWA – In response to municipalities’ lack of readiness for the looming closure of the Lesotho highlands water tunnel for six months due to maintenance, a war room has been established by department of water and sanitation minister Pemmy Majodina on September 20, 2024 during a meeting held in Nketoane local municipality.

This according to a media release that aims to intensify and fast-track the level of readiness in preparation for the eminent shutdown of the LHWP tunnel.
The meeting was made up of senior managers from the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), Free State Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) and Municipal Managers from Mafube, Nketoana, Setsoto, Dihlabeng and Mantsopa Local Municipalities.

The LHWP Tunnel is preparing for a six-month closure (from 1 October 2024 to 31 March 2025) as it undergoes planned maintenance, jointly undertaken by the Lesotho Highlands Development Agency (LHDA) on the Lesotho side and Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) on the South African side.

“The establishment of the war room follows my recent oversite visit to the LHWP Tunnel by during which I met with the Free State municipalities that will be affected by the closure to assess their state of readiness to continue to supply water to their communities during the maintenance period.
“I was not satisfied by the reports that some of the projects that municipalities had earmarked would not be completed by the time of the closure, thus raising concerns that some communities may not be provided with sufficient water by these municipalities.

“The closure is prompted by a need for extensive maintenance and repair works at the tunnel to ensure optimal water supply. The tunnel shutdown will have implications for water supply to South Africa, particularly on the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) water users.” Majodina said.

The community of Clarens which is in the local municipality of Dihlabeng will experience a severe and direct impact from this closure of the tunnel. The executive mayor of Dihlabeng James Tseki reassured the team that upgrades to the Caledon Raw Water abstraction and drilling boreholes are underway. “When it comes to the matter of the Clarens plant, the Clarens Water Treatment Works (WTW), with a design capacity of 1.1Ml/day, is operating at 2.8Ml/day to meet demand.

Senior water and sanitation,cogta, and municipalities during engagement in Nketoana local municipality.

Upgrades are 95% complete, with projects addressing rising main issues (33%) and boreholes (35% complete).”
The Department started engagements with all the affected municipalities in 2021, as well as other interested and affected stakeholders and government departments, informing them of the planned tunnel closure. Subsequently, the Department has been continuously holding meetings with these municipalities to discuss their action plans to mitigate any water supply challenges during maintenance work at the Tunnel.

The war room will accelerate plans that are under way which include water augmentation projects, water restrictions in all these municipalities, water tanking and drilling of boreholes. Some municipalities like Dihlabeng Local Municipality are also assisting community members to fix leaks in their households as leaks impact heavily on conservation of water to the area.