LESOTHO HIGHLANDS WATER PROJECT

LESOTHO HIGHLANDS WATER PROJECT

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The Ombudsman Listens to Grievances against the LHDA

PRESS STATEMENT

Click Here to Read this Press Statement in Sesotho

Maseru - 22 May 2003

Press Statement by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) on Concerns tabled before the Ombudsman and background information on the compensation policy and the Project.

We acknowledge the spate of public concerns with regard to the management of resettlement and compensation issues at the Lesotho Highlands Water Project ( LHWP). The Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), as the implementing Agency of the LHWP in Lesotho, is taking these concerns with the seriousness that they deserve and efforts are being undertaken to reach working solutions thereof. The concerns are demonstrative that, either the LHDA has not fully lived up to the expectations of the Compensation policy, or that they have done what is required by the policy, but this does not meet the expectation of the intended beneficiaries, the affected communities.

The LHDA is committed to fulfilling their mandate under the LHWP Treaty and Compensation Policy. We, therefore, welcome legitimate complaints in this regard as these will help us to ensure that when the Project is completed, all due obligations and responsibilities have also been met.

It is against this background that we would like to provide information and clarification on the nature of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project as well as progress on the disbursement of compensation.

The LHWP Treaty

The LHWP is a bi-lateral co-operation between the Governments of the Kingdom of Lesotho and the Republic of South Africa on exploiting the water resources in the highlands of Lesotho. A Lesotho Highlands Water Project Treaty was officially signed on 24 October, 1986 for the implementation of the Project.

The main objectives were a) to divert the headwaters of the Senqu/Orange river and its tributaries in Lesotho, in a north-ward direction and to deliver the water to the Gauteng Province in the RSA for her industrial and municipal requirements, b) to generate hydropower in Lesotho and c) to undertake ancillary developments.

In Lesotho, benefits from the LHWP include royalty earnings from the sale of water to the Republic of South Africa, amounting to close to M16million a month. The money is deposited directly into government’s treasury by the South African government. Its use and management is entirely by government. For the first time in the history of Lesotho, the country can now generate its own electricity at the ‘Muela Hydropower station in Butha-Buthe. Lesotho is now nearly self-sufficient in the supply of electricity and any excess amounts is sold to Eskom in South Africa. A network of roads, bridges, telecommunication and electricity lines into the remotest highland areas, constructed as part of the Project, is contributing to economic benefits for Basotho. Additional benefits accruing to Lesotho are an increase in the number of health centres, improved rural water supplies and sanitation facilities. On the other hand the people of South Africa can enjoy a reliable supply of good quality water for their domestic and industrial demands.

The LHWP Treaty included provisions for promoting the upkeep of environmental and social aspects. Therefore, in the implementation of the Phase 1, The Project has to deal not only with engineering design and construction requirements of an enormous and technically challenging water transfer project, but also with developing systems to manage extensive and complex environmental and social mitigation processes.

According to an independent consultants and members of the Environmental Panel of Experts providing specialist advice and audit services on the LHWP, the processes provide good management examples of handling socio-environmental issues in large construction projects.

Baseline studies to investigate all physical and social environment impacts of the Project were performed for both Phases 1A and 1B. A holistic mitigation plan, the Environmental Action Plan (EAP), was established and approved to redress socio-environmental disturbances caused through the implementation of the Project. A compensation Policy was designed to mitigate and compensate all identified impacts of the Project in accordance with the Treaty requirements. The Treaty provides for an adaptive management approach to compensation issues. The compensation policy was revisited and reviewed in 1997 at the start of Phase 1B.

Development of the Compensation Policy

An extensive participatory process that included consultations with the affected communities, stakeholders, and Governmental institutions led to the development of the Compensation Policy. There is an established structure between the communities affected by the Project that involves Area Liaison Committees (ALCs) which are legitimate representatives of the affected communities, Chiefs and the Office of the LHDA Chief Executive. It is at forums with the affected parties that important discussions on compensation and other issues, take place for review of procedures and other related aspects.

The two Governments of Lesotho and the South Africa have agreed on issuance and management of compensation in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project Treaty in recognition of the rights of those affected. A Compensation policy was drafted as early as 1989 and would ensure that assets, both individual and communal, were duly compensated. The policy provides for direct compensation for direct losses of assets such as houses, fields, cattle posts and graves. Long-term compensation would be in the form of engaging people in development initiatives with multiple spin-off benefits for directly affected people as well entire communities. These included agro-based production and small and micro-enterprise programmes. The policy has since been revised in 1997 to cater for emerging new information during the project’s implementation.

Implementation of the Compensation Policy

During the implementation of Phase 1A, 143 houses, a church and 2 schools were relocated. In Phase 1B, resettlement was effected in different stages. Stage 1 (pre-construction) resettlement of 99 families was completed in 1998, while Stage 2 (pre-inundation) resettlement of 226 households is close to completion. Stage3 (post inundation) resettlement will be determined once the inundation process is completed.

2,900 households in Phase 1A lost 1,504 ha of arable land and nearly 2,800ha of rangeland to the Project when they relocated. In Phase 1B, a total of 3,353ha of arable land was lost by some 500 households. 3,434ha of rangeland was also lost to the development of the Project.

Compensation for loss rangeland was initially in the form of fodder delivered to affected communities over 5 years, but this has since been changed to financial contributions to a communal compensation fund, available to host communities for mutually approved projects. Disbursements from this fund have suffered delays while communities were being organised into co-operatives and trained.

Compensation payments awarded to cooperatives in the last six months for loss of communal assets

*KLC : Katse Local Catchment

Comparison of the implementation of the compensation between LHDA and other Government Departments for loss of assets due to similar developmental projects.

In other government departments and institutions, implementation of compensation for loss of assets due to similar developmental projects, are prescribed under the Land Act, section 56. Land is compensated for land, affected houses are paid for M1.75 square metre and any monetary compensations issues are a once-off payment. Where fields are affected, compensation may be awarded in a form of seed or the owner of the field being employed for a slightly longer period in the project.

The Ombudsman’s intervention

The LHDA welcomes the intervention of the office of the Ombudsman as another mechanism of ensuring that the LHDA fulfills its mandate and no affected member of the community is short-changed even through a genuine error of omission or oversight. We hope that this intervention by a neutral party will help in minimising mutual suspicions amongst the LHDA, the Affected people and the NGOs. We trust the recommendations emanating from the hearings will pave the way for sound management of people’s issues in furthering the activities of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and large scale developmental projects with similar impacts.

At the moment, The LHDA is working hard to ensure that our online is kept updated with information and we wish to invite all to visit our website at http://www.lhwp.org.ls. We also wish to advise you to visit our Information Centres at Maseru, Ha Mohale, ‘Muela and Katse for detailed information. While in Maseru you may also wish to call at our PR offices at 3^rd Floor New Post Office Building.