Lowlands Water Development and Sanitation Project - Phase III: Additional Financing (AFDB-P-LS-E00-009)

Countries
  • Lesotho
Geographic location where the impacts of the investment may be experienced.
Specific Location
Butha-Buthe District: Qalo, Butha-Buthe Industrial Area, Ha Mopeli
Whenever identified, the area within countries where the impacts of the investment may be experienced. Exact locations of projects may not be identified fully or at all in project documents. Please review updated project documents and community-led assessments.
Financial Institutions
  • African Development Bank (AFDB)
International, regional and national development finance institutions. Many of these banks have a public interest mission, such as poverty reduction.
Project Status
Approved
Stage of the project cycle. Stages vary by development bank and can include: pending, approval, implementation, and closed or completed.
Bank Risk Rating
A
Environmental and social categorization assessed by the development bank as a measure of the planned project’s environmental and social impacts. A higher risk rating may require more due diligence to limit or avoid harm to people and the environment. For example, "A" or "B" are risk categories where "A" represents the highest amount of risk. Results will include projects that specifically recorded a rating, all other projects are marked ‘U’ for "Undisclosed."
Voting Date
Jun 25, 2026
Date when project documentation and funding is reviewed by the Board for consideration and approval. Some development banks will state a "board date" or "decision date." When funding approval is obtained, the legal documents are accepted and signed, the implementation phase begins.
Borrower
Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs
A public entity (government or state-owned) provided with funds or financial support to manage and/or implement a project.
Sectors
  • Water and Sanitation
The service or industry focus of the investment. A project can have several sectors.
Investment Type(s)
Loan
The categories of the bank investment: loan, grant, guarantee, technical assistance, advisory services, equity and fund.
Investment Amount (USD)
$ 13.67 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Loan Amount (USD)
$ 13.67 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Project Cost (USD)
$ 13.67 million
Value listed on project documents at time of disclosure. If necessary, this amount is converted to USD ($) on the date of disclosure. Please review updated project documents for more information.
Bank Documents
Primary Source

Original disclosure @ AFDB website

Updated in EWS Aug 12, 2026

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Project Description
If provided by the financial institution, the Early Warning System Team writes a short summary describing the purported development objective of the project and project components. Review the complete project documentation for a detailed description.

According to bank's website, the Lesotho Lowlands Water Development and Sanitation Project – Phase III Additional Financing is an additional financing operation designed to scale up the ongoing Phase III project and extend climate-resilient water supply and sanitation services to three additional underserved localities in Butha-Buthe District, Lesotho. The additional financing will expand the water distribution network to Qalo (Kontsokoaneng), Butha-Buthe Industrial Area (Ha Majara Serutle), and Ha Mopeli (Nqabeni). It will finance approximately 171.3 km of water transmission and distribution pipelines, a 2,000 m³ service reservoir, seven pressure-break tanks, access roads to the reservoirs, network control chambers, and approximately 5,050 metered household connections serving 25 villages. It will also support the construction of 300 climate-resilient sanitation facilities, hygiene promotion, community mobilization, establishment and training of village water and health committees, water-resource monitoring and early-warning systems, institutional strengthening, and project management. The additional financing cost is estimated at approximately UA 11.11 million, equivalent to USD 15.34 million, financed by an ADF-16 loan of UA 10 million, or approximately USD 13.8 million, and an in-kind contribution from the Government of Lesotho of approximately UA 1.11 million, or USD 1.54 million. The initial Phase III project had an estimated cost of UA 87.19 million, equivalent to USD 117.71 million. In addition to the Bank’s initial financing of UA 10 million, the Bank mobilized approximately USD 94.2 million in co-financing from five Arab development partners: the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa – USD 20 million; Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development – USD 13 million; OPEC Fund for International Development – USD 30 million; Saudi Fund for Development – USD 11.2 million; and Abu Dhabi Fund for Development – USD 20 million. The executing agency is the Ministry of Natural Resources, through the Commissioner of Water and the existing Project Implementation Unit.

Early Warning System Project Analysis
For a project with severe or irreversible impacts to local community and natural resources, the Early Warning System Team may conduct a thorough analysis regarding its potential impacts to human and environmental rights.

Environmental Category: [1] High Risk

Climate Safeguards Categorization: [2] Projects may be vulnerable to climate risk 

Investment Description
Here you can find a list of individual development financial institutions that finance the project.

African Development Fund 

Financial Instrument: Project 

Masterloan number: 2100150045343

ADF Cycle: ADF-16 

Commitment (UA): 10,000,000


Contact Information
This section aims to support the local communities and local CSO to get to know which stakeholders are involved in a project with their roles and responsibilities. If available, there may be a complaint office for the respective bank which operates independently to receive and determine violations in policy and practice. Independent Accountability Mechanisms receive and respond to complaints. Most Independent Accountability Mechanisms offer two functions for addressing complaints: dispute resolution and compliance review.

Name: Herbert Mugwagwa CHINOKORO

Email: h.chinokoro@afdb.org 

ACCESS TO INFORMATION

You can submit an information request for project information at: https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/request-for-documents. Under the AfDBÕs Disclosure and Access to Information policy, if you feel the Bank has omitted to publish information or your request for information is unreasonably denied, you can file an appeal at https://www.afdb.org/en/disclosure-and-access-to-information/appeals-process.

ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM OF AfDB

The Independent Review Mechanism (IRM), which is administered by the Compliance Review and Mediation Unit (CRMU), is the independent complaint mechanism and fact-finding body for people who have been or are likely to be adversely affected by an African Development Bank (AfDB)-financed project. If you submit a complaint to the IRM, it may assist you by either seeking to address your problems by facilitating a dispute resolution dialogue between you and those implementing the project and/or investigating whether the AfDB complied with its policies to prevent environmental and social harms. You can submit a complaint electronically by emailing crmuinfo@afdb.org, b.kargougou@afdb.org, b.fall@afdb.org, and/or s.toure@afdb.org. You can learn more about the IRM and how to file a complaint at: https://www.afdb.org/en/independent-review-mechanism/

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How it works