BLOEMFONTEIN — Parts of the Free State are bracing for a crippling water shortage after the tunnel that delivers the precious liquid from Lesotho dams to South Africa was shut down for maintenance last week. The maintenance on the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) will last until the end of November. This means during the two-month period Katse Dam will not be channelling water to Gauteng via the Free State.
The department of water affairs, however, insists South Africa’s economic heartland will not be affected by the LHWP maintenance although it has urged consumers to use water “sparingly” during the outage period. “Water will still be transferred at the required rate as transfers that took place over the last few months were increased to make up for the two-month outage and provide additional buffer storage in the Vaal Dam,” the department’s spokesperson, Sputnik Ratau, said in a statement.
“The assurance of water supply to the Gauteng area will therefore not be negatively impacted upon during this planned outage of the LHWP.” But opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) legislator, Roy Jankielsohn, this week warned the farming town of Tweeling especially was facing a water crisis in the next two months because of the maintenance. Tweeling, 331km east of Bloemfontein, is situated near the Liebenbergsvlei River which is a conduit for water from the LHWP. The people in the farming town use water from the river for irrigation and domestic purposes.
“The implications of this (maintenance) are already being experienced in the Free State,” said Jankielson, who is also the DA’s spokesperson for agriculture in the province. “Tweeling town in the Mafube municipality is expected to experience severe water shortages in the next two months. “Furthermore, many agricultural activities are dependent on this water supply.
“Fruit and wheat farmers require water during this time of the year for irrigation. “The maintenance could affect crop yields if rain is not forthcoming.” The parliamentary portfolio committee on water and environmental affairs undertook an oversight visit to the LHWP from Monday to Wednesday. Earlier this year LHWP released water from the giant Katse Dam to alleviate the worsening water problems in the Setsoto Local Municipality in the eastern Free State. The water was released into the Caledon River to reach the beleaguered municipality’s recently refurbished water treatment plant in Ficksburg.
This small farming town, about 200km east of Bloemfontein, has been dogged by severe water shortages that have seen households in some parts of Meqheleng township going for up to four weeks without clean running water. The towns of Clocolan and Marquard, which also fall under Setsoto Local Municipality, have also been battling acute water shortages for months.