Will Gauteng be able to avoid "water shedding"?

The Polihali Dam Phase 2 should have been finished this year. But because of delays in getting started, Gauteng and surrounding areas are now at risk of potentially calamitous water restrictions until at least 2026.

The reason for the delay of this project has now been resolved does this mean no "water shedding" for Gauteng?

End of impasse over Polihali Dam construction bodes well for Gauteng

The good news was hidden in the jobs and tenders section of last week’s Lesotho Times. That’s where the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) announced the cancellation of prequalification for the construction of the Polihali Dam and transfer tunnel because it did not address “lenders’ requirements”. It will now go back to the beginning and put the project out to open tender, ending a year-long impasse over the procedure to be followed.

The Polihali Dam, Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), is critical to keep central SA water secure. It should have been finished this year. But because of delays in getting started, Gauteng and surrounding areas are now at risk of potentially calamitous water restrictions until at least 2026.

The LHDA said in its announcement that “the lenders came on board after the prequalification exercise had already commenced”, pointing a finger straight at the SA government. Financing is SA’s responsibility, but our ministers seemed more interested in extracting benefits from the project than ensuring it was implemented on time. The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA), which successfully funded previous projects, will do the legwork. But it needs the minister and department of water & sanitation to take the lead and give direction. That ball was dropped.

Progress was delayed while then minister Nomvula Mokonyane tried to gain control over the process. She fired Zodwa Dlamini, the country’s chief delegate to the Lesotho Water Commission in Maseru, allegedly because Dlamini would not help one of Mokonyane’s pet companies, LTE, get a lucrative slice of the design contract. That LTE did not have the necessary capabilities (lamentably revealed on the much smaller, now infamous, Giyani water supply project) was no object.

The challenge now for water users in Gauteng and surrounds is to ensure Polihali does not become another Medupi, with political rent-seeking undermining the management of a complex and difficult project. So the other good news is that, because of its bilateral history, much of the project’s funding will come from international lenders — notably the African Development Bank and the New Development Bank. With the two governments, they will be looking over the shoulders of the LHDA. Repayment of their loans will be underpinned by the sale of water, so they need assurances that the project will be managed efficiently and honestly.

That’s very different to what happened with Eskom’s Medupi and Kusile power stations, which were financed against Eskom’s overall balance sheet. This allowed the Eskom board to structure the contracts in a manner that greatly increased its risks but created opportunities for political benefit and corruption.

In some respects, the situation with LHWP2 is also easier because the treaty between SA and Lesotho sets out procedures to be followed to protect national interests. But this project has to be managed in real time and not delayed whenever there is an administrative complication. The job of the ministers is not to run the project but to put the right people in place to do the job and help them to get on with it.

Water restrictions that are already in place in the Vaal River System will get more onerous. The restrictions were imposed indirectly when the department of water told Rand Water that it could not take more water from the Vaal than the 1,600-million cubic metres per year that its licence conditions now allow.

Since 2017 Rand Water has been running Project 1600, advising large users from Rustenburg in the North West to Secunda in Mpumalanga how much they can have. Now they must live within that cap. Johannesburg is under level 1 water restrictions — although the residents of the leafy suburbs who water gardens and hose down driveways seem unaware of this.

As Gauteng’s population has been growing about 2% a year, per capita consumption will have to drop by the same proportion until more water is available, since most municipal water is used by households. There need not be “water-shedding” — but only if the region’s residents tie a knot in those hosepipes and prepare for some dry years ahead.

This article was written for the Business Day by Mike Muller a former director-general of water affairs, is a visiting adjunct professor at Wits School of Governance