MBABANE: Rains that fell consistently almost countrywide since 2025 are great for agriculture. They have been a lifesaver especially for livestock in the Lubombo as well as crops in the Middleveld. While the land is no longer thirsty, the same cannot be said for development. National dams still need more rain to sustain the economy.
The high volume 322 MCM Maguga dam on the Nkomazi River is now only 71.6% full. This dam needs to be full to drive maximum electricity power generation and rescue the country from high-cost electricity imports from South Africa and Mozambique.
The Maguga Dam is a bi-national project that only leaves 40% of its water in Eswatini which is used to water the town of Pigg’s Peak and augment irrigation for Tshaneni, Mhlume, Vuvulane and Simunye. In terms of the 1992 Komati Basin Water Authority Agreement, South Africa takes 60% of the water by pipeline to Lake Matsamo on the other side of the border for its Nkomazi region agriculture developments. The dam only becomes valuable for electricity generation when it overflows.
In a bid to increase the country’s capacity for clean renewable energy, the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) is in the process of to increasing Maguga’s generation capacity by an extra 10 MW. It issued a call for call for bids in August 2024 for the design, procurement, construction, testing and commissioning of the project, including civil works and the supply of electro-mechanical equipment and hydraulic steel works.
The 177 MCM Mnjoli Dam, the second largest in the Kingdom is now only 66% full. This dam is key to the sugar cane industry at Mhlume and Simunye. Mnjoli is filled by the Mbuluzi River before it proceeds all the way to become the principal source of water for the coastal city of Maputo.
The just-as-vital to the economy 155 MCM Lubovane dam on the Lusutfu River has risen to 81.4%. This is relief for farmers on the LUSIP corridor from Siphofaneni to Ndzevane. Lubovane also augments irrigation for the Ubombo Sugar projects in Big Bend. Ubombo sugar is also a major contributor to the national power grid – supplying 16 megawatts of electricity from its co-generation thermal power.
The high-altitude 23.6 MCM Luphohlo Dam 15km south of Mbabane is performing marginally better. It is only 63% and a major strain to the country as it drives the 15Megawatt Luphohlo hydropower electricity station station at the bottom of the Malagwane Hills. The dam benefits from the Lusushwana that has a much longer catchment area to collect water.
The national capital, Mbabane is not yet out of the woods. It is still threatened with water scarcity. The current rains have done little to improve the baby dam, Hawane, which at 2.75 MCM at full capacity, is still the smallest of the country’s 5 dams. Being on the roof of the country, the dam is filled by two tiny tributaries at the source of the Mbuluzi that spring from hills less than 5 kilometres away. It needs a deluge of localized rain to fill up.
The dam is also one of the least efficient. Soil erosion from maize fields on its eastern hillside and a growing community of homesteads feed it a steady stream of mud.
A panic drought in 2016 forced government to conduct an emergency dredging of the dam, but almost 10 years later, it is back to where it was. Vegetation, visible from the bridge on the MR1 consumes the top part of the small dam. Rains as of 6 January only lifted the dam marginally from 39% on 30 December to the current 48%. This dam flows back into the Mbuluzi River which goes on to fill the Mnjoli Dam in Simunye.
Jm/today/7.01.2025
