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lesotho highlands water projectlatest news & developments
Concerns: Local residents gather to voice their opposition to the construction of the Polihali Dam in Lesotho, as part of the second phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy

‘Our Land, Our Lives’: Lesotho villagers challenge Gauteng water scheme

Lesotho villagers allege unsafe conditions and no accountability in the scheme to supply Gauteng

The second phase of the Lesotho Highlands must not repeat the mistakes of the first phase in which women were displaced and disempowered. Photo: File

Lesotho Highlands Water Project must work with women, not against them

Public banks – Development Bank of Southern Africa, African Development Bank and the New Development Bank – and the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority render women invisible…

Watershed: The Lesotho Highlands Development Authority building in Maseru. Photo: Sechaba Mokhethi

How South Africa’s Lesotho water project costs ballooned by R45bn

Political and administrative delays, treaty complications and changes in government leadership contributed to the jump

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), established by the 1986 treaty signed by the governments of Lesotho and South Africa, is a multi-phased project that generates hydroelectricity through a system of several large dams and tunnels in Lesotho for domestic use and supplies water to the Vaal River System in South Africa for its economic hub, Gauteng.

Lesotho Highlands Water Project: Centre local voices in the climate change, conflict and peacebuilding nexus

Climate change and peacebuilding is usually dealt with at high levels by governments and international institutions, marginalising those directly affected

Low: The Vaal Dam, part of the Integrated Vaal River System supplying Mpumalanga, Gauteng, Free State and Northern Cape, is under pressure from planned maintenance and low rainfall. Photo: Mike van Jaarsveld

Vaal Dam’s levels are plummeting

Although there is a backup plan in the Sterkfontein Dam, residents need to reduce their water use

Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina has approved a temporary increase in water abstraction by Rand Water to stabilise Gauteng’s strained municipal water systems (DWS/X)

Minister blames municipal mismanagement for Gauteng’s rising water demand

The province is ‘not doing the right things’ to rescue itself from running out of water, Pemmy Majodina told parliament’s portfolio committee on water and sanitation

Africa’s infrastructure financing gap needs to be bridged. Photo: Adrian Greeman/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images

Lesotho Highlands Water Project maintenance: There will be water but use it sparingly

Contingencies are in place for the maintenance shutdown, the water and sanitation department says

Jennifer Fitchett sitting next to the excavation through the diatomite profile, adjacent to the core that was taken, April 2014. Photograph provided by Jennifer Fitchett

Finding Lesotho’s lost lake

A glimpse into the past, which shows the effect of climate change, can help predict the future

Senzo Mchunu. (M&G)

From water to police: Senzo Mchunu’s legacy and Pemmy Majodina’s new job

Mchunu has left big shoes that need to be filled, according to experts

Sean Phillips, the director general at the department of water and sanitation. (DWS/Facebook)

There won’t be dry taps during six-month Lesotho Highlands Water Project Tunnel shutdown, says government

The six-month period required to conduct maintenance is crucial to ‘avoid any catastrophic event’

(Mail & Guardian)

Editorial: Stop looting Mlangeni’s legacy

Covid-19 has exposed how widespread corruption tore the heart out of our institutions, from parastatals to hospitals and infrastructure projects.

Cascading dam capture: In areas where the taps have run dry, such as QwaQwa people spend hours collecting water transported there by trucks. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Water theft: Thirty years of looting

New research details how the department was broken, profiting a select few and leaving a third of South Africa’s population without clean water

Concerns have been fuelled by many well-founded reports of mismanagement at the department of water and sanitation, which has oversight responsibility for water security. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Panic over water in Gauteng is misplaced

The department of water and sanitation has plans in place to ensure adequate water supply until 2040 and beyond

Katse Dam, part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, helps to keep Gauteng water flowing. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Water-shedding will make load-shedding seem like a jol

Supplied water is too cheap. A litre bottle of water in a supermarket is R10, whereas 1 000 litres to your house costs just R50

Indefensible: Millions of people don’t have water because of poor maintenance, cost cutting and corruption. A decade on and this plant in Giyani still struggles to provide water to nearby residents. (Delwyn Verasamy)

20-million in SA denied clean water

The cash to give it to them has been spent, but corruption and waste have left them without

The Little Caledon bypass runs water into Gauteng.

Water board awash with problems

The minister has been in a year-long spat with the board of a key, but flailing, water authority

Supra Mahumapelo is facing a palace revolt

Mokonyane rejects Outa’s claims of delay tactics in Lesotho water project

Outa says Mokonyane has "jeopardised" the water security for Gauteng by delaying the development of the LHWP II for more than two years.

Nomvula Mokonyane says the ANC’s Gauteng leadership is out of step with the majority of the provinces on President Jacob Zuma.

Mokonyane’s alleged new terms for Lesotho water project cited as causing delays

The Polihali dam, part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme, was originally scheduled for completion in 2018 but has been repeatedly postponed.

The cost of petrol will fall by more than 60 cents a litre, while diesel users will benefit from reductions of up to R1.50 a litre. . (Oupa Nkosi)

Water restrictions begin in Gauteng

Rand Water, South Africa’s biggest water utility, has implemented water restrictions as the country’s drought continues to intensify.

The cost of petrol will fall by more than 60 cents a litre, while diesel users will benefit from reductions of up to R1.50 a litre. . (Oupa Nkosi)

Mystery of fat payment for Lesotho king’s pal

After nine years in jail for corruption and reappointment as adviser to Lesotho’s Highlands Water Project, Masupha Sole is being investigated again.