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WATER POLITICS

Via Future Directions International, a report on Lesotho’s need to re-evaluate water arrangements with South Africa in wake of a record drought:

In 1986, the governments of Lesotho and South Africa entered into a joint water supply enterprise titled the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). The primary purpose of the project was for South Africa to provide historically poor and landlocked Lesotho with a source of income in exchange for a continuous supply of fresh water to Gauteng and other South African provinces. The record drought gripping much of southern Africa, including Lesotho, has ignited calls for a re-evaluation of the agreement, with notable criticism directed towards the fact that many Lesotho citizens are themselves not privy to the same fresh water security guarantees that their own government effectively provides to the citizens of its larger neighbour.

 Comment

Relations between Lesotho and South Africa have historically been of a close and cordial nature. Lesotho, like South Africa, is a member of the Commonwealth and, although it has experienced periods of civil unrest since independence in 1966 (including more recently), is once again enjoying a period of stability. In the modern era, those of warm neighbourly relations are usually attributed to the ending of the apartheid system in South Africa in 1994 and the first democratic elections which followed. Unfortunately, however, the future durability of that once healthy and mutually beneficial trust is now under increasing threat due to a combination of the vagaries of Mother Nature and a fresh water arrangement that favours the larger and wealthier South Africa over its smaller partner.

The LHWP is a water supply project with a hydropower component that comprises a system of several large dams and tunnels that run throughout Lesotho and South Africa. The development – which began in 1998 and is still ongoing – is Africa’s largest water scheme and involves the Malibamatso, Matsoku, Senquanyane and Senqu Rivers in Lesotho, and the Vaal River in South Africa. The main purpose of the joint enterprise is to provide Lesotho with a source of income in exchange for South Africa receiving continuous water provisions to the strategically important commercial, industrial and population centres of Gauteng Province.

Historically, this arrangement has been politically and economically beneficial for Lesotho, too.  Hydroelectricity from the project currently contributes close to 100 per cent of its current energy requirements, and the country’s infrastructure has been monumentally improved as hundreds of kilometres of cemented roads have been built to improve access to the dams and tunnels of the LHWP, a factor which has drastically improved lines of communication, transport and trade between formerly isolated local communities. The Government of Lesotho – which receives around 700 million rand ($68.5 million) from the arrangement – claims that the LWHP has also helped with the establishment of new schools, hospitals and public services in such areas. The continued success of LHWP is, and always has been, however, dependent upon favourable climatic conditions. Unfortunately for Lesotho, however, in 2015, it was one of the countries hit hardest by the drought that resulted in southern Africa’s driest growing season in 35 years.

The 2015 El Niño-driven drought has had a devastating effect on Lesotho, both politically and economically. The drought sparked a 47 per cent drop in the production of the country’s staple food crop, maize, and at least 709,000 people – or 50 per cent of the population – are believed to need food assistance through to mid-2017, according to the United Nations. The major irony is that even with the unprecedented drought and seasonal crop failures, Lesotho still receives enough fresh water to adequately supply its citizens but it must, under the LHWP agreement, divert it to South Africa instead. The continuous pumping of the reduced water supply into South Africa is leaving the dams and waterways of Lesotho dry, which in turn affects crops and livestock and the villagers who depend upon them for survival. A lack of fresh water also leads to greater incidences of disease and malnutrition and, in a country with the world’s third-highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS, could further strain the fragile healthcare system.

Due to the unfolding humanitarian disaster, there has naturally been increased criticism of the water sharing arrangements between the two countries. Arguments have been put forward that the initial agreement was made between Apartheid South Africa as a means of bullying its much smaller neighbour and that the LHWP should, therefore, be scrapped. Others have argued that, as the project is still ongoing, the Lesotho Government has very little ability or leverage to cancel the multi-billion dollar arrangement. To further compound the situation for Lesotho, the yet-to-be finished final phases of the development – including the Metalong Dam Project scheduled to be completed in 2020 – are expected to ease the situation and make water more easily accessible to a majority of Lesotho citizens (although many are unwilling to wait). Although there has been a welcome increase of rainfall in recent months, many experts, including South African Minister for Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyatne, have predicted that the southern African region should not anticipate a full recovery from the effects of the drought for at least another three years. All the above factors contribute to the complexity of the issue and the difficulty in finding a solution beneficial to all parties involved.

Lesotho’s experience with water deals may yet be a blessing in disguise for other developing states and may provide an example of exactly how not to arrange water sharing agreements. Lesotho is unfortunately caught up in a quagmire of arrangements which have effectively protected the interests of another state at the expense of its own interests. While South Africa can be criticised for its role in the situation, the authorities in Lesotho can equally share the blame for the dire conditions that many are now facing. Lesotho must therefore re-evaluate its water sharing arrangements with South Africa. It should work with its neighbour to ultimately develop and implement a domestic water security policy which better protects its own citizens and national interests. That will not be easy, but a failure to do so could very well foreshadow an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe in southern Africa.