Pretoria: Water and Sanitation Minister Pemmy Majodina is leading a South African delegation to Lesotho for an oversight visit to assess progress on Phase II of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). The Minister, together with Deputy Minister David Mahobo and Deputy Minister of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Seiso Mohai, is scheduled to meet Lesotho’s Minister of Natural Resources, Mohlomi Moleko.

According to South African Government News Agency, Majodina will be joined on the two-day visit beginning on Saturday, 14 December 2025, by representatives of the Lesotho Highlands Water Commission and the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), which is the implementing agency for the project. The oversight visit will include inspections of key infrastructure sites, including the Polihali Dam construction site, the Katse Dam Outfall Tunnel system, and the Senqu Bridge.

The Minister will also lead bilateral consultation meetings to discuss project progress and ensure the continued success of the initiative. The LHWP is central to strengthening bilateral relations between South Africa and the Kingdom of Lesotho, while advancing development and economic prosperity in both countries.

The project involves constructing a network of tunnels and dams to transfer water from the Orange-Senqu River in the Lesotho highlands to South Africa, and to use the water-delivery system to generate hydro-electric power in Lesotho. Phase II of the water transfer component includes the construction of an approximately 165-metre-high concrete-faced rockfill dam at Polihali and a 38 kilometre concrete-lined gravity tunnel linking the Polihali and Katse reservoirs.

Upon completion, Phase II will increase the annual water transfer from Lesotho to South Africa by 490 million cubic metres, raising total transfers to 1260 million cubic metres per year. The additional water will feed into South Africa’s Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS), which supplies water to Gauteng and comprises 14 dams across four provinces.

Earlier this month, the Ministers responsible for water from the four Orange-Senqu River Basin states reiterated their commitment to safeguarding the river basin as a strategic resource for regional water security, climate resilience, economic development, and ecological sustainability. The visit will conclude on Sunday, 15 December 2025.