Katse Dam | Lesotho | Destinations

Katse Dam, centrepiece of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project is a fine piece of engineering. The flooded valleys of the dam extend for 45km and the dam wall is 185m high. The dam is second in size in Africa only to the Lake Volta Akosombo Dam in Ghana. The surrounding scenery is magnificent. The dam does not detract from the magnificent panoramas, and is often of great interest to visitors.

The views of the dam are the best from Mafika Lisiu Pass when the water levels are at their highest. For visitors, there is an interpretative centre, which features a model of the whole project and all its phases, with a commentary in English. You can also go on a tour arranged by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority Visitor Centre. They are on the right side as you enter Katse. The Katse Botanical Gardens is a new feature created to house Lesotho's indigenous flora, especially those threatened by the flooding of the valleys to create the dam.

The Katse Dam, part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project--Africa's largest dam project, eventually to include 5 large dams in remote rural areas--is a concrete arch dam on the Malibamat'so River in Lesotho. The potential of the project was identified by the South African Civil Engineer Ninham Shand as a possible means to supplement the water supply to South Africa. The World Bank arranged for a treaty between the then-Apartheid government of South Africa and its much smaller neighbor, Lesotho, allowing execution of the project to proceed The dam was built by a consortium of Bouygues, Concor, Group 5, Hochtief, Impregilo, Kier Group and Sterling International[1].

The dam was completed in 1996 and the reservoir filled with water by 1997. The mass of water gave rise to induced seismicity.Farmers who lost land to the project have had trouble re-establishing new livelihoods. There is little arable land in the mountains to replace all that was lost, and efforts to help them with new livelihoods have by no means been as successful as the engineering works. A local group has documented the project's human legacy in the rural communities directly affected by the project, and the environmental and human-rights NPO, International Rivers, produced a detailed account of the effects.

Water from the dam first travels through a 45 km, 4 m diameter tunnel, exiting at a hydroelectric station near Muela. The dam's high elevation allows a gravity flow delivery system to South Africa, in addition to hydroelectric power for Lesotho, and was a prime reason behind the choice of site. Water delivery officially began on 22 January 1998. The dam currently supplies about 30 m³/s of water to South Africa, which pays Lesotho $5 million per year, plus a variable royalty based on calculated water usage benefits.

In recent years, water from the scheme has also been discharged into the Mohokare (Caledon) river to provide water to Maseru in times of critical shortages. The new dams have filled as anticipated and discharge of water from the dams into the downstream rivers continues in a scheme devised to preserve ecological balances. This discharged water flows to the Senqu (Orange) and while preserving the ecological status quo benefits only those communities along the rivers, and schemes to provide water supplies to displaced Highlands farmers have not been very successful [5]. The dam project has also been a source of widespread corruption,[6] which is not uncommon with large dam projects. The Lesotho courts have taken the unusual step of prosecuting the large companies involved in the scandal in addition to the Lesotho bureaucrat who took the bribes. Thus far, there have been a number of convictions and at least one company debarred by the World Bank for its role in the scandal. Dam features * Height - 185 m * Crest length - 710 m * Design - double arch, concrete * Concrete - 2,320,000 cubic meters * 1993 meters above sea level