Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) should supply South Africa with water by 2022, said Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) divisional manager Tente Tente on Monday.
A 2009 feasiblity study said the water would be available in 2020.
Speaking at the Civilution conference, in Ekurhuleni, Tente said while the agreement for the second phase had been signed in 2011, it was only ratified in 2013, which finally allowed work on the project to kick off.
Tente said the delivery process for LHWP Phase 2 already had a “cramped, quite hectic” programme, with seven tenders expected out in April, seven in May and another seven in June.
The project, roughly estimated to cost around R17.5-billion, would include the construction of the Polihale dam, the extension of the Muela hydroelectric complex, the construction of a 38.2 km water transfer tunnel connecting the Polihale reservoir with the hydroelectric complex, access roads to the project sites, camps, power transmission lines and administration centres.
Tente said the LHDA will engage the market through a series of road shows in May, where it would stipulate the “rules of engagement”.
Phase 1 of the LHWP had “not been free of corruption”, he added, with strong anticorruption measures in place for the second phase of the scheme to supply much-needed water to South Africa.
Tente said the authority had learned many lessons from Phase 1, and referred to a Sotho saying that a new shield was best made tracing an old one.
“I think this project would be beneficial to the region,” he added.
The LHWP was a bi-national inter-basin water transfer scheme, which originally aimed for the delivery of 70 m3/s of water to South Africa.
It was envisaged as a four-phase, 30-year scheme, with the treaty for the scheme signed in 1986, following its conception in the 1930s.
It was currently delivering 24 m3/s of water.