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dam-l Children Talk about Lesotho Dam/LS
The following essays by children affected by Katse Dam in Lesotho were sent
to IRN by Transformation Resource Centre in Lesotho. The essays appeared in
their latest issue of "Work for Justice." For more information, please
contact TRC by email at: <trc@celine.adelfang.co.za>.
Sorry for cross postings.
>>The Way That the LHWP Changed the Way My Family Lives
>>
>>There is nothing better than eating without working. Mosotho! You did not
>>work for yourself, but something still fell into your hands.
>>In my family there was a sewing machine, but nobody knew how to use it. We
>>had to hire a person who knew how it worked. We were paying her a lot of
>>money. Fortunately, LHDA came and took one member of our family to trade
>>school to learn to sew. We did not pay anything for her to go there. So
>>then that person who was using the machine had to go back to her place.
>>My family had fields near the river. We were plowing them, but we never
>>produced enough grain. The project has satisfied us, though. We used to
>>get five tins from two fields but LHDA is giving us more than five tins.
>>It is giving us beans (which we did not plant before). May they help
>>everyone.
>>Lukase, Sepinare PS, Standard 7
>>
>>There is nothing worse than working hard at something and then having
>>something come and destroy it. We were satisfied with the way we were
>>working. We were plowing maize and beans. We were eating fresh maize. We
>>had trees. We had firewood and people were buying it from us. We were
>>getting money and we were able to go to school.
>>When LHDA came and destroyed everything that was important to my family, we
>>started to become poor. The dam took our fields and our trees. That was
>>the end of our money.
>>We needed to look hard to find enough money for us to attend school. We
>>were given maize, beans, and a little money, but it is not as much as we
>>were producing before. That was the end of our fire and fresh maize.
>>Now, when I look at the dam, I still get very angry.
>>Mpho, Sepinare PS, Standard 7
>>
>>My family was affected by the LHDA like this; our field was taken when they
>>constructed the road. Now the cars are killing our animals. They are
>>giving us compensation of maize and beans each year, but they bring that
>>maize late. In October. When that compensation arrives it finds us eating
>>nothing, starving, still asking ourselves when compensation will come. So
>>they should make sure that they bring that compensation food in time. They
>>should try to bring beans that can be cooked easily and also good maize.
>>We want to eat like other people.
>>Ramathaleha, Bethesda PS, Standard 5
>>
>>My moecause now we are eating when we did not plow. We are living where we
>>did not build. They have built us toilets. They have built us a clinic.
>>They built us a trade school at Thaba-Tseka. My sister now knows how to
>>knit. They have constructed us roads and a football field. They helped us
>>with electricity near the roads.
>>Malefu, Malibamatso PS, Standard 6
>>
>>The dam has taken our fields. Now we are living a difficult life. The dam
>>has also taken our pastures. We now have no place where our animals can
>>graze. . . The dam has changed the life of my family because there are many
>>tsotsis nowadays. We now have to lock our doors at night. The dam causes
>>us coldness. The dam has covered our trees. We now have no wood and now
>>it is deathly cold.
>>Maloase, Malibamatso PS, Standard 7
>>
>>The dam is good and bad. The LHDA brought jobs here. They also brought a
>>technical school to Thaba Tseka where we don't have to pay anything.
>>The bad thing is that they have taken our fields and they are giving us
>>only a small amount of maize and beans. We are now living a difficult
>>life. Now we have to buy mealie-meal. Before LHDA we were producing maize
>>and everything. We now have no firewood for the winter. The wood is
>>covered by water.
>>Mpholle, Sepinare PS, Standard 6
>>
>>Since the beginning of the project we are no longer plowing fields down at
>>the river. Instead we are given food. The LHDA has taken our land at the
>>river. Our cattle have no pastures, now they are lean.
>>The LHDA has made problems at our home. When the earth shakes, our house
>>cracks and our plates fall down on the floor. We are frightened all the
>>time. Since the water came, our cattle are finished. They fall into the
>>dam when they graze near it.
>>The LHDA has taken our trees near the river. We now have no wood to make a
>>fire. We are getting cold during the winter.
>>Since the water came, we become afraid when our parents whip us because we
>>might fall into the dam when we try to run away.
>>Sentsonyane, Sepinare PS, Standard 5
>>
>>My family's fields and houses were covered by the dam, and we were
>>resettled. The LHDA hired people to carry our clothes and things to the
>>new place. When they gave us those resettlement houses it was cold because
>>they gave us no mats. We were using things that we slept on in our old
>>house, because of that coldness. Our old houses were built with stones and
>>smeared with dung. Now we have brick houses. They took the rafters from
>>the old house to use as firewood.
>>The LHDA has taken our fields so we now have no fresh maize, green beans,
>>or peas. Our field near the river was taken and the field near Sakaleholo
>>and the field under the village and all of the gardens. We are given food
>>in October when we are supposed to harvest in June. If there is no money
>>to buy mealie-meal, we sleep without eating anything. The food they are
>>giving is not in good condition. It's full of worms. We are given only
>>three and a half tins, and my parents are not satisfied.
>>Our wood trees were many, but they have brought us apple trees and pear
>>trees and peach trees. Some of the peach trees died. Some lived. We were
>>given money for our gardens.
>>Nehango, Bethesda PS, Standard 5
>>
>>We had some problems in my family in the olden days. We were poor. We
>>were always going from house to house looking for papa for breakfast and
>>dinner. Sometimes we were living on fish. We were walking barefoot. We
>>had no shoes. We didn't have blankets.
>>Then the Katse Dam arrived and covered our piece of land where we were
>>producing a small amount of food. Fortunately, my parents started working
>>because of that land that the dam has covered. After they had been
>>employed, we started wearing good clothes. For that piece of land they
>>gave us maize and beans (which we did not plant before). We were able to
>>go to school. Because there was no money before that. My family developed
>>because of the LHDA. My parents were happy when they were given gumboots,
>>because they didn't have them before. They were also given hand gloves,
>>pink overalls, and yellow raincoats. We were allther was able to brew
>>joala. My father found a job at the dam. The project bought my parents
>>and my family was developed. . .
>>We are no longer sleeping on sheepskins. We are sitting on sofas. We are
>>drinking hot tea. We are no longer wearing gumboots. We no longer go to
>>fetch firewood. We are cooking with gas stoves.
>>Tau, Malibamatso PS, Standard 3
>>
>>In my family we are living better because of the dam. My father worked at
>>the dam, and it was my first time to see development in our house. They
>>were able to pay for my school fees and buy me some clothes. I didn't have
>>them before. Even today we are living a good life because my parents are
>>able to make many things for us. Even some things like vegetables and
>>carrots.
>>My parents are now travel nicely on taxis when they go to the cities. They
>>are no longer using horses because of the dam. And the dam has built my
>>parents a good house. So the dam has helped us much.
>>Rethabile, Malibamatso PS, Standard 4
>>
>>The dam has changed the life of my family band stayed at Katse with another
>>man. My father went to Katse Lodge, and he did not give us any money. He
>>married and stayed there. We lived a difficult life after that. My mother
>>came to see us and went back. Even now the LHWP is still bad. Our
>>brothers are drinking beer and making young ladies pregnant, and other
>>girls sleep where there parents don't know. Girls are falling in love with
>>men. Women are falling in love with boys. Girls are killing their babies.
>>They throw them in tins and in toilets. LHWP has been bad because girls
>>were drinking beer and they were going in cars of the Italians; especially
>>my sister. I've finished telling stories of LHWP. They've spoiled our
>>things but on the other hand they've helped us.
>>Lipolelo, Khohlontso PS, Standard 6
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
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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