The 700-metre-long, 145-metre-high dam was built over 2002-4 to impound the Senqunyane River, an important tributary of the Senqu (Orange), below its confluence with the Likalaneng. Part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, it was designed to divert water via a 32km-long subterranean tunnel to the more northeasterly Katse Dam, which in turn supplies water to Gauteng, the highly industrialised and densely populated South African province that incorporates Johannesburg and Pretoria.
Boating on Mohale Dam, LesothoAlthough it is of great interest to engineers, Mohale attracts more casual visitors for its lovely setting among steep-sided mountains and the opportunity to explore the reservoir’s multi-tendrilled upper reaches on motorboat excursions that also take in the dam wall and the entrance to the underground tunnel to Katse.
As much of an attraction as the dam itself, the asphalted A3 from Maseru ranks as one of the country’s most scenic roads. It traverses a series of majestic slopes swathed in tussocked heathers and mane-like tufts of moseea thatching grass as it switchbacks through a trio of evocatively named mountain passes: the 2,263-metre Bushman’s Pass, the 2,281 Molimo Nthuse (‘God Help Me’) Pass and the 2,633m Thaba Putsoa (‘Blue Mountain’) Pass.
