Project Design

LUSIP will be designed in such a way, that the Usuthu River’s peak summer flows will be diverted into a 160 million cubic meter capacity off-river reservoir, impounded by 45 meter high dam walls on the Mhlathuzane and Golome rivers in the south east of Swaziland.

Water will then be conveyed to some 11,500 hectares of irrigable land for smallholder production of crops such as sugar cane, citrus, bananas, vegetables, maize and cotton.

The irrigated area will be developed in 2 phases. First, Bovane block, covering about 6,465 ha will be developed, followed next by Matata Block, covering 5,041 ha. Bearing this in mind, the development of the total area can be split up into two separate phases: Stage I (Bovane, six years development) and Stage II (Matata, 4 years development).