Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP)

Unexpected Benefits of Lesotho Highlands Water Project
Inter Press Service (subscription) - Rome,Italy
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 30 (IPS) - The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) was conceived and built primarily to supplement the water supply of the industrial hub of South Africa. The additional water has however, provided an important benefit beyond the original aims of the project -- it is reducing the salinity of the Vaal Dam reservoir. The reservoir near Vereeniging -- about sixty kilometres south of Johannesburg -- is the principal water reservoir for Gauteng Province, the largest industrial and mining centre on the African continent. Originating in the eastern part of the country, the Vaal River serves as the main source of water for the Vaal Dam reservoir. While the river is large enough to meet water requirements for the area most of the time, the catchment area is subject to severe and protracted droughts. The LHWP was built to help Gauteng Province cope with perennial water shortages that resulted from these droughts. The catchment area includes many coal and gold mines that are responsible for a substantial amount of water pollution. Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) and nutrient rich outflow from sewage treatment works have caused the salinity of the river flowing into the Vaal Dam reservoir to increase dramatically. Water in the reservoir became so rich in extra nutrients that plant life became unusually plentiful and dense. When plants died and began to decompose, the decomposition process killed the animal life by starving it of oxygen. Since the far cleaner waters from the LHWP began flowing into the reservoir, scientists from the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry have noted how much easier it is to manage salinity levels in the dam ... This positive side-effect might help create a somewhat more encouraging image of LHWP project that has had more than its fair share of controversy ... Political criticism centred around the fact that the internationally ostracised ‘white’ government in Pretoria was going ahead with a project that would use the resources of a neighbouring ‘black’ country to sustain the industrial engine of the apartheid regime ... So far only phases one-a and one-b of the project have been completed. In Feb. 2004 the governments of Lesotho and South Africa agreed to commission a feasibility study of Phase two of the LHWP. The study was set to be completed in Dec. 2007 ...