Name of the Project
Mzimvubu water resources development project.

Location
Eastern Cape, South Africa.

The Mzimvubu project will supply clean water to communities around the district municipalities of OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Joe Gqabi, and in other parts of the province.

Project Owner/s
Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS).

Project Description
The water resources of the Mzimvubu river, the only major river in the country, are still largely unused. Government has declared the project as one of its Strategic Integrated Projects to facilitate the allocation of sufficient resources and implementation on a fast-track basis.

The project entails the construction of a dam to supply new water capacity for irrigation development, the establishment of domestic and industrial water use requirements in the Mzimvubu catchment, as well as for the potential development of hydropower. The project will include the construction of the Ntabelanga and Lalini dams, on the Tsitsa river, a tributary of the Mzimvubu river, which will be built and operated as one integrated scheme. The project includes bulk water infrastructure to convey water to domestic and irrigated agriculture consumers.

Flow-gauging stations will measure the inflow and outflow from the dams, and monitor the implementation of the reserve.

The Ntabelanga dam, which will store about 490-million cubic meters of water, will be used for domestic and agricultural water supply requirements. The project includes centralised water treatment works at the dam site.

The Lalini dam, with a storage capacity of 232-million cubic metres, will be used for hydropower generation and will be able to generate 35 MW of base power, or up to 180 MW of peaking power, when operated jointly with the Ntabelanga dam.

About 18.5 km of power lines are also expected to be erected to feed the power into the national power grid. This scheme will be built as the first phase of a much broader development programme of the Mzimvubu river catchment, which will be phased over time.

Potential Job Creation
The project is expected to create about 6 700 jobs a year during the construction phase and 6 500 jobs a year during the operational phase.

Capital Expenditure
About R20-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
Not stated.

Latest Developments
The DWS states in its Annual Performance Plan: 2023/24 to 2025/26 that the project is under construction.

Key Contracts, Suppliers and Consultants
None stated.

Contact Details for Project Information
DWS director: media liaison Wisane Mavasa, tel  +27 12 336 8264 or email mavasaw@dws.gov.za.