The planned closure of the Lesotho Highlands Water Tunnel for six months from the 1st of October 2024 – 31st of March 2025, will not have implications on the availability of water for Gauteng, the Department of Water and Sanitation, said at a media briefing on Friday morning.
The Department’s Director General, Dr Sean Phillips, said the impact of the closure on the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS) will be insignificant, because other dams in the system, such as the Sterkfontein Dam, are relatively full.
He said as soon as water levels drop to 18% in the Vaal Dam, water will be released from the Sterkfontein Dam.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is a hydropower water supply partnership between South Africa and Lesotho.
The planned maintenance of the tunnel leading to temporary closure of the project, will be jointly undertaken by the Lesotho Highlands Development Agency and the Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority.
The system consists of a Transfer Tunnel, linking Katse Dam with Muela Power Station and Muela Dam. There is also a Delivery Tunnel, linking Muela Dam with the Ash River Outfall Works between Clarens and Bethlehem.
Dr Phillips, said 700 million m3 of water per annum, will be transferred in 2024, and only a shortfall of 80 million m3 from the annual transfer volume, will be impacted. However, the shortfall will be recovered after the outage period.
Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which is currently under construction, includes a 165m high Concrete Faced Rockfill Dam at Polihali and a 38km long concrete-lined gravity tunnel connecting the Polihali Dam reservoir to the Katse Dam.
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