By Bahle Gama
The Kingdom of Eswatini and the Republic of Mozambique will have a sod-cutting ceremony on the Lomahasha-Namaacha (LoNa) Cross-Border Water Supply Project on June 6, 2024.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy, this marks the commencement of phase 1A of the LoNa project.
The LoNa project is grant-funded by the Government of Germany through her bank, KfW, and financed by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Regional Fund for Water Infrastructure and Basic Sanitation (RFWSBS) managed by the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).
The project entails the construction of bulk water transmission mainly from Simunye Water Treatment Plant here in Eswatini to Namaacha town in Mozambique comprising among others ductile iron pipelines,
the construction of booster pumping stations, reinforced concrete reservoirs, and the construction and extension of reticulation networks, and other scope to be provided in the detailed tender stage to prequalified tenderers.
According to the specifications of the tender for the project published in April 2021, it was foreseen to assign the services to an independent construction firm with proven experience in water and sanitation infrastructure development.
The minimum annual turnover is expected to be about E208 million (Euro12 million).
Worth noting is that the Minister of Natural Resources Prince Lonkhokhela attended the 42nd SADC Joint Committee of Ministries responsible for energy and water in Angola on May 30, 2024.
The meeting requested more financial support from other funders to support more water infrastructure projects in the Member States including Eswatini.
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In the energy sector, the deliberations focused on the security of energy supply and progress on the SADC priority areas for sustainable regional power sector development and proposal for the development of a regional transmission infrastructure financing facility.
The Minister also made decisions on the expansion of generation capacity, the promotion of renewable energy sources, and the development of Just Energy transition framework for the SADC region.
The SADC Energy Ministers further deliberated on the strengthening of the regional regulatory environment to promote energy investments through the transformation of the regional regulatory association into a regional regulatory authority.
To ensure that the renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives are implemented as key drivers of the energy transition, the meeting considered the operationalization of the SADC Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.
In the Water Sector, the deliberations focused on the importance of the implementation of groundwater projects in the SADC Member States.
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Eswatini received a subgrant from SADC GMI to implement a project on “improving knowledge on groundwater availability through the assessment of available groundwater resources,
capacity development, and innovative groundwater information management”.
