Lesotho water deal still months away

Maranyane Ngwanaamotho | Wednesday October 8, 2014 16:47

The study was expected to take a year after Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) last year in March.

The research was to determine the possibility of water transfer from the Lesotho highlands to Botswana, which has persistently suffered unsatisfactory rains in recent years.

Botswana, South Africa, Lesotho, together with Namibia are members of the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) and therefore can all benefit from the utilisation of the water.

In response to written enquiries yesterday, Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Affairs’ deputy permanent secretary, Thayaone Dedede said the project was still at procurement stage for engaging the consultancy that would carry out the actual study.

He said that they need two months to finalise the procurement process and six months for the study duration.

“The programme is at the final stage of procurement where the financial proposals for the consultants were opened on October 2, 2014.

Time was spent on procurement through the utilisation of the World Bank procurement process,” he said, adding that, the study is funded by the World Bank.

The Minster for Minerals, Energy and Water Affairs, Kitso Mokaila, previously described the signing of the MoU as “a giant leap towards the process of getting water supply from Lesotho, which would be used for the socio-economic development of our country.”

“We are grateful to Lesotho and South Africa for their cooperation, and the cordial relationship which exists between the three countries,” he said then.

The MoU provides implementation in three phases, where the first phase is a study that will identify amongst others the possible routes, transit beneficiaries, possible challenges and risks as well as impacts on existing water resources.

If the study shows technical feasible solutions, the subsequent phases will be a full detailed investigation on identified projects.

The second phase is a more detailed feasibility study while the third phase is construction.