Lesotho Water Project / Reports

This report, commissioned by CEE Bankwatch Network and written by International Rivers, details how large dams financed by the EIB have damaged communities and the environment and failed to bring promised development benefits.

Presentation to Chatham House Conference, July 10th 2000 "Corruption in Southern Africa – Sources and Solutions"

I have been asked to discuss the charges currently being prosecuted in the Lesotho courts against 19 corporate and individuals accused of bribing a top official in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in order to gain project contracts. My allotted task is to explore the question: "What went wrong?"

The World Bank’s Failed Efforts to Restore Lives and Livelihoods of Dam-Affected People in Lesotho

While the Lesotho Highlands Water Project increased the fortunes of the nation’s elite, the majority of Lesotho's citizens were not able to cash in on the LHWP. In total, approximately 1.5 percent of Lesotho’s citizenry is directly affected by the project. It weakened local economies and severely strained the social fabric of nearby villages. Despite a long-term compensation program, huge amounts of resources devoted to “rural development,” and many good intentions, the welfare of affected people has been compromised – perhaps irrevocably.

Presented at the Southern African Hearings for Communities Affected by Large Dams

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Anna Moepi. I come from Lesotho. I am a representative of the community from Matala, who initially came from Molikaliko. We thank you happily for inviting us here to get our side of the story and are hoping you will support us.

Here is our position before the Lesotho Highlands Water project came. We were living in peace and harmony. Our life was a simple undisturbed life. Our mode of transport was ourselves – we were travelling on foot, also using donkeys and horses to go to the clinics and the shops.

Africa’s largest infrastructure project the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) is a massive, multi–dam scheme built to divert water from Lesotho’s Maloti Mountains to South Africa’s industrial Gauteng Province. The first phases of the World Bank–supported project involve the construction of three large dams which, when completed will dispossess more than 30,000 rural farmers of assets (including homes, fields, and grazing lands) and deprive many of their livelihoods.

Water conservation and demand management (WC/DM) holds tremendous potential to help the region to meet its water needs. Urban and agricultural water use in southern Africa is highly inefficient. In South Africa, for example, it is estimated that nearly half of urban water is wasted through water loss or inefficiency. Similarly, irrigation in Southern Africa, which represents 69 percent of total consumption, is estimated to be less than 50 percent efficient. If irrigation practices could be made only 10 percent more efficient across the region, 2.5 billion cubic meters would be saved each year. If urban water use across the region could be made only 10 percent more efficient, more than 600 million cubic meters would be saved each year. Together these savings would provide enough water to supply every person in the region who is currently unserved by water services with more than 100 litres per day. Clearly, effective implementation of water conservation and demand management practices could go a long way toward solving the region’s water troubles.