The Lotsane Dam is a dam on the
Lotsane River
The Lotsane River is a river in southeastern Botswana. It is a seasonal left hand tributary of the Limpopo River and has a catchment area of 9,748 square kilometers.
Course
The Lotsane has its source in the sandveld, at the eastern fringes of the ...
in
Botswana
Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...
completed in 2012. Its purpose is to provide drinking water to local villagers and to support a horticultural project.
Description
The purpose of the dam is to provide a reliable source of drinking water to 22 villages in the
Tswapong area, and to provide irrigation water for a horticulture operation near
Maunatlala
Maunatlala is a village in Central District of Botswana at the feet of the Tswapong Hills, near the Lotsane River. It is located east of Palapye and from the border with South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Afri ...
.
The dam is an earth fill embankment high and long, with an ungated long ogee crest spillway.
The reservoir has active storage capacity.
The dam was built by
Sinohydro Corporation at a cost of about US$100.7 million.
835 Botswana citizens and 138 Chinese were employed in construction.
The pipeline network to deliver the water will be long when completed.
Construction
The engineering service contract for design review, procurement and consultancy during construction of the dam was given to
SMEC Holdings
SMEC Holdings Limited (formerly Snowy Mountains Engineering Corporation) is an Australian based-firm that provides consulting services on major infrastructure projects around the world. SMEC undertakes feasibility studies, design, tender and contra ...
of Australia.
The contract was awarded to Sinohydro of China in January 2009, with completion planned for October 2011.
In May 2010 the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources warned that the water pipes from the Lotsane Dam to the villages would cut across some ploughing fields belonging to Maunatlala and
Mokokwane residents, but said that the villagers would be compensated.
In August 2011 the deadline for completion was extended to December 2011.
As of February 2012 the dam was complete and starting to hold water, but did not yet have enough to start supplying the villages since there had not yet been any heavy rainfall in the catchment area.
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{{Dams and reservoirs in Botswana
Dams in Botswana