dam-l LHWP

[lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)]

>Subject:       [ENVACT-L:6583] NEWS: LESOTHO MINISTER URGES SUPPORT FOR
>HIGHLANDS WATER PROJECT
>Date:          Thu, 22 Jan 1998 14:53:49 +0200
>
>
>@ WATER-MASERU
>
>MASERU January 21 1998 Sapa
>
>LESOTHO MINISTER URGES SUPPORT FOR HIGHLANDS WATER PROJECT
>
>Lesotho's natural resources minister on Wednesday urged all
>sectors in the country to join hands to ensure the R10 billion
>Lesotho Highlands Water Project, to be inaugurated on Thursday,
>became a success for the benefit of the Basotho nation.
>
>The minister responsible for water affairs, Shakhane Mokhehle,
>said Lesotho's non-governmental organisations had dissociated
>themselves from allegations aimed at discrediting the project.
>
>He said it appeared that "certain external non-governmental
>organisations - supported apparently by just one body in Lesotho
>- were planning to use the occasion of the inauguration of the
>water transfer to make allegations and representations in order to
>discredit the water project and cause work on phase two to cease".
>
>Allegations had been made that affected communities were
>unhappy with the policy of compensation for any losses caused by
>the project.
>
>Mokhehle cited a long list of economic benefits that would have
>a significant impact on Lesotho's economy.
>
>He said in 1994, the peak year for construction of the project,
>expenditure on the project accounted for more than a quarter of
>Lesotho's gross domestic product.
>
>Royalties paid by South Africa to Lesotho at present topped the
>R2 million mark.
>
>Revenues from Lesotho's customs pool with the South African
>Customs Union countries had been paid into the Lesotho Highlands
>Water Project Development Fund, which had grown to about R350
>million.
>
>South Africa's Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry,
>Professor Kader Asmal, said Lesotho and South Africa had embarked
>on a project that would transform Lesotho's principal natural
>resource into an export commodity that would earn revenue for the
>country.
>
>The project would provide a much-needed additional supply of
>water "to quench the growing thirst in the industrial heartland of
>South Africa," he said.
>
>Asmal said the "multitude of direct benefits" reaped by South
>Africa included an economic boom for the eastern Free State towns
>of Ladybrand, Ficksburg, Fouriesburg, Clarens and Bethlehem.
>
>He said the project provided a role model in regional
>co-operation since "the economic destinies of South Africa and
>Lesotho are inextricably linked and the project represents an
>integrated unified approach to development".
>
>The water transfer component of the project will be
>commissioned by President Nelson Mandela and Lesotho's head of
>state, King Letsie III, at Muela in northern Lesotho on Thursday.
>

=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
      Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
           International Rivers Network
              1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
                  Tel. (510) 848 1155   Fax (510) 848 1008
                        http://www.irn.org
=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*

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