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Blue Gold

As oil is to Saudi Arabia, so is water to Lesotho

This tiny country, becalmed in the middle of South Africa, is one of the poorest in the world

But it has a valuable asset - water. And it now makes 15% of its GDP by selling this asset to Gauteng, the region around Johannesburg.

Gauteng is thirsty. It earns more than half of Africa's GDP and needs plenty of the "blue gold" for agriculture, industry and the basics of living.

Diverting this much water requires major construction, however. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is Africa's biggest infrastructure project and will have cost well in excess of $6 billion if it is ever completed.

Action reaction

Rapid change is an inevitable result of development on this scale. Roads have been built where none existed and traditional community structures disrupted.

Construction crews, meanwhile, brought AIDS to the region. 24% of women are now HIV+ in the region surrounding the dam.

And there's the small matter of the displacement of people.

20,000 had to move when the first of five dams was finished - with more on their way every time a new dam is completed.

Sold out

This kind of change creates plenty of victims and some of them are trying to get their voice heard here in Johannesburg.

They have formed a group called Survivors of the Lesotho Dam (SOLD), prompted by the independent environmental activist, Tim Ream, who spent time in Lesotho as a peace corps volunteer.

Tim has fond memories of Lesotho villages, close in space, but "forever in time" away from modernity. He remembers living with "classic happy peasant people," living genuinely sustainable lives.

Some readers may scoff, but the fact is that the indigenous Lesotho people at the summit remember things this way too.

Prepared to die

Their spokesman is Thabang Kholumo, a local school teacher turned activist, with a good grounding in the language of sustainable development.

"People have been driven off the land," he says. "They have been resettled in new villages. They have to survive on hand-outs that come only once a year. Dams do not bring sustainable development."

He acts as translator for Makobenle Lokabanu, who lives alone with her husband in a village that will be flooded in October.

The rest of her village has been resettled, but she has been unable to prove ownership of her house, even though she has lived there for 18 years.

In desperation, she says she will allow herself to be drowned as the waters rise.

"I have nowhere to go to," she says. "I cannot afford a new house. I have no choice but to die."

Road incident

Mamptite Mafela, meanwhile, is a widow who lost part of her land when a road for construction was built through her plot.

For years, she received no compensation until, finally, she took action and blocked the road with rocks.

8000 rand (about US$750 dollars) richer, she is still not happy.

"Before the road disturbed me, I was living comfortably," she says. "There was no noise and I had land to grow vegetables."

"Now the construction has damaged my house and we are scared of these big cars that pass on the new road near our houses."

"It is too noisy. The silence we used to enjoy is no longer there. I would love to go back to the time when there was no road."

"The road is hazardous to us. It kills our animals. It kills our children. We don’t enjoy this road."

Have freedom

Tim Ream thinks the lesson is obvious.

"When I was first in Lesotho, you could have come in, done an economic survey and found that the people were living on less than a dollar a day," he says.

"Now, they're living up on the hill in a concrete house, with a tin roof, and the misery index has gone through the ceiling."

"People may have more cash than they used to - but they have a considerably lower standard of living," he concludes.

Free us

Marching towards the World Summit's nerve centre at Sandton today were several hundred people who disagree vehemently with Tim.

Indian and African farmers, as well as Johannesburg's street hawkers, were demanding the freedom to trade.

BJ Buthelezi is a South African farmer and also leader of the Ubongwa Farmer's Union.

"Freedom is being taken away from us as farmers, by people who come and tell us which crops we are allowed to plant" he says.

"People tell us that technology is not for us and GM food is not good for us. I am a cotton farmer. Four years ago, biotechnology multiplied our yield three times, which put more money in our pockets."

"I once had four hectares, but now I have 25. And I employ 18 people on my farm."

Development now

As with the Lesotho people, pro-market small businesses have their interlocutors.

Leon Louw is, in many ways, the mirror image of Tim Ream. He too is a professional activist, running the Free Market Forum, among other groups.

"Businesses are not the problem," he told the Daily Summit. "They are the solution. To the extent that anything useful happens on the planet, it's done by business."

The rich world was built on exploiting its resources, he believes. Indeed, unsustainability fuelled innovation. As one resource was used up, new technologies were required to exploit another.

"The first world has harvested all its trees. They've filled in their wetlands and called them Rotterdam or New Orleans," he argues.

"The third world should do the same. And the first world should stop telling the poor not to do the things that put the rich where they are today."

Dreamers

Within Sandton, mainstream government opinion is involved in a tortuous process that attempts to split the difference between the Tims and the Leons of this world.

England was the first country to undergo the process of modern development. And a painful experience it was too.

As the poor moved from the country to the towns and cities, their lot tended to worsen, at least for a time.

Cash might be more plentiful, but living conditions were worse and people's standard of living suffered accordingly.

For Tim, this process should never have happened. For Leon, it is just pain that must be endured.

The orthodox Sandton version of sustainable development is more progressive than Tim’s, more romantic than Leon’s.

It believes development may have hurt the first time around, but we can do it better now.

It imagines that economic, social and environmental progress can be achieved simultaneously - and that each can reinforce the other.

Yes - it's our governments that are the dreamers these days. And that may be good. Or bad. Or somewhere in between.

David Steven | 29/08/02

[sidelights]

“I have nowhere to go

I cannot afford a new house

I have no choice but to die“