The LUSIP Dam Irrigation Scheme, a project of our subsidiary in Swaziland, is changing people’s lives. We are turning dry, dusty land into hectares of green sugar cane…
LUSIP (Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation project) is a poverty alleviation initiative situated in the Swaziland Lowveld, the poorest area of the country. Its goal is to help turn the local economy from small-scale subsistence farming reliant on seasonal rainfall, to sustainable, irrigated agriculture concentrating on sugar plantations.
SWADE, a parastatal organisation managing the project on behalf of the Swaziland government and international financiers, asked Tractebel Engineering to handle the design and construction supervision of the related irrigation scheme.
The project is located on the west bank of the Usuthu River. Phase 1 has focused on developing the bulk water supply infrastructure, the feeder canals leading from the river, the reservoir, three dam walls, the outgoing water supply canals, and the infield irrigation network (6,500 ha).
Our scheme is very simple and efficient, as it works purely on gravity. There are no pumps involved, right up to the point where farmers take water from the balancing dams at the final point of the scheme. A great irrigation feat!
Thanks to the irrigation network, large scale plantations of sugar cane, and perhaps maize, cassava, vegetables or cotton are possible. 15,0000 families will benefit from this development, representing 10 to 15% of the country’s population.
