As a prelude to the 15th BRICS Summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), which opened on 22 August 2023 in Johannesburg, South Africa, the New Development Bank (NDB), set up by the five states to finance the development of emerging countries, has signed an agreement with the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA). The 3.2 billion South African rand (more than $170 million) loan will speed up implementation of phase II of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP).
This is one of the advantages that the future new members of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) will be entitled to: the financing of development projects. The New Development Bank (NDB), an international development bank set up in 2004 by the BRICS states, reiterated this commitment on 21 August 2023, just hours before the opening of the 15th BRICS Summit on 22 August 2023, which will focus on the accession of the new members. It did so by approving funding of 3.2 billion South African rand (more than $170 million) for the continued implementation of phase II of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP).
The loan agreement was signed on 21 August 2023 between Vladimir Kazbekov, Deputy Chairman and Chief Operating Officer of the $250 million NDB, and Percy Sechemane, Chief Executive Officer of the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA), the South African public body responsible for water management.
Increasing water supply to 1260 million m3 per year
The NDB loan will be used to finance the construction of a concrete embankment dam some 165 m high at Polihali, downstream of the confluence of the Khubelu and Senqu-Orange rivers, and a gravity tunnel some 38 km long linking the Polihali reservoir to the Katse reservoir.
All the works planned in phase II of the LHWP water project will make it possible “to increase the transfer of water from the Kingdom of Lesotho to the Republic of South Africa by 490 million m3 per year compared with the current 780 million m3 per year, raising the rate of supply of water for consumption and agriculture to 1260 million m3 per year via the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS)”, says the South African Department of Water and Sanitation. The IVRS is the largest system in South Africa, comprising 14 dams with catchment areas in four provinces: the Free State, the Northern Cape, Mpumalanga and the North West.
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The consortium formed by the Italian companies Salini Impregilo and Cooperativa Muratori Cementistri CMC di Ravenna, together with the South African company CMI Infrastructure and LSP Construction of Lesotho, has been chosen by the TCTA to carry out the various works, which are due to be completed in 2028, almost 24 years after the inauguration of the first phase in 2004.
Phase II of the LHWP water project is also being financed to the tune of $86.72 million in the form of a loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB), as well as several other development partners.
Inès Magoum
