Limpopo Business 2016-17 edition

OVERVIEW
Water
A Limpopo Water Master Plan will be tabled during 2016.
SECTOR INSIGHT
Limpopo in the site of two of
South Africa’s largest infrastructure
projects - Mokolo
Crocodile Augmentationn
Project and Oliefants
River Water Resources
Dvelopment Project.
A
Provincial Water and Sanitation Summit has resolved that a
Limpopo Water Master Plan has to be urgently developed.
Floods have been known in parts of Limpopo (and they
have been serious), but the more pressing threat is drought:
a disaster area was declared in late 2015 in response to the latest
prolonged shortage of water.
National and provincial government set aside budgets for the
provision of feed to livestock farmers. In addition to this emergency
aid, downward revisions also have had to be made to schemes that
include irrigation, such as the Fetsa Tlala programme.
The province’s two most important economic sectors (mining
and agriculture) depend on a steady and sustainable supply of water.
Several Limpopo towns have struggled to supply clean water to
residents, and this has led to tension between residents and municipal
officials. In response, the National Minister of Public Works has put
together a technical team to support the municipalities.
Limpopo’s three distinct regions attract very different levels of
rainfall: the escarpment (sub-humid with annual rainfall of more than
700mm); semi-arid middle veld and Highveld; and the arid and semiarid
Lowveld.
The province’s rivers are also
under threat from the damaging
effects of the mining industry,
power stations, chemicals used
in agriculture and from sewage
treatment in catchment areas.
Opportunities exist in this sector
for innovative solutions.
The National Department of
Water and Sanitation (DWS) has
attached a figure of R570-billion
to the amount of investment
needed in South Africa’s water
supply chain in the years to 2022.
Water resources infrastructure
alone is said to need R162-
billion. Limpopo is the site of
two of the biggest of these
projects: the Mokolo Crocodile
Augmentation Project (west)
and the Olifants River Water
Resources Development Project
in the east.
Each of Limpopo’s five district
municipalities function as a Water
Service Authority and the Lepelle
Northern Water company has a
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