Upgrading the RIBASIM software and its institutionalisation at the Ministry of Water



Contract partner: Stichting Deltares Country: Lesotho Funding amount: € 115.010,83 Project start: 01.08.2015 End: 30.06.2017

Short Description:

Overall goal


Water is an important resource for Lesotho and the country is known as the ‘Water Tower’ of Southern Africa. Lesotho exports water to South Africa and generates hydropower through the Highlands’ water. Also in the Lowlands the water sector is rapidly expanding to satisfy the domestic, commercial and industrial demand in towns and villages.


Mitigating the effect of climate change in Lesotho and the extensive water harvesting makes it imperative for the Ministry of Water to enhance its capacity in water resources assessment, management and development.


The Ministry currently faces various capacity constraints in relation to

(i) operation of its monitoring network for hydrometric, meteorological, groundwater and water quality data as well as

(ii) effective use and interrogation of basin models such as RIBASIM, a model for analysing the behaviour of river basins under various hydrological conditions.


The expected results of the assignment of Stichting Deltares are that

- the actual RIBASIM software and the upgraded model for Lesotho are licensed, installed and functional and suitable back-up support is provided and

- 10 professional staff members (two of them women) of the Department of Water Affairs, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, the Lesotho Meteorological Services and the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security are trained in i) calibration of the upgraded RIBASIM model; ii) simulation of various scenarios in terms of alternative scheme layouts, changes in water availability (climate change scenarios) and various scenarios for water demand development; iii) mainstreaming of interlinkages, environmental and social issues, in those scenarios and iv) interpretation of model results.


The 2 million inhabitants of Lesotho will finally benefit from the Ministry’s sound decision making to manage Lesotho’s water resources and to ensure water resource development in terms of sustainable economic development, improved livelihood and food security.

project number 2722-00/2013
source of funding OEZA
sector Wasserversorgung und sanitäre Einrichtungen
tied 115010,83
modality Other technical assistance
marker Environment: 2, Climate change adaptation: 2
  • Policy marker: are used to identify, assess and facilitate the monitoring of activities in support of policy objectives concerning gender equality, aid to environment, participatory development/good governance, trade development and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health. Activities targeting the objectives of the Rio Conventions include the identification of biodiversity, climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, and desertification.
    • 1= policy is a significant objective of the activity
    • 2= policy is the principal objective of the activity
  • Donor/ source of funding: The ADA is not only implementing projects and programmes of the Austrian Development Cooperation , but also projects funded from other sources and donors such as
    • AKF - Foreign Disaster Fund of the Austrian federal government
    • BMLFUW - Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water
    • EU - Funds of the European Commission
    • Others - various other donors are listed in ADA’s annual business report.
  • Type of Aid – Aid modalities: classifies transfers from the donor to the first recipient of funds such as budget support, core contributions and pooled programmes and funds to CSOs and multilateral organisations, project-type interventions, experts and other technical assistance, scholarships and student costs in donor countries, debt relief, administrative costs and other in-donor expenditures.
  • Purpose/ sector code: classifies the specific area of the recipient’s economic or social structure, funded by a bilateral contribution.
  • Tied/Untied: Untied aid is defined as loans and grants whose proceeds are fully and freely available to finance procurement from all OECD countries and substantially all developing countries. Transactions are considered tied unless the donor has, at the time of the aid offer, clearly specified a range of countries eligible for procurement which meets the tests for “untied” aid.
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