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A promise unfulfilled - life after the dam

peter.murphy — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 10:51:38 +0000

Tanki and Malineo Moubane are worse off since they were relocated for construction of the Mohale dam. Their house is substandard, and they can't grow enough food. Will the new phase of dam develoment have the same impact on poor communities?

The treaty between Lesotho and South Africa under which dams are being built in the Lesotho highlands states that, "the standard of living and the income of persons displaced... shall not be reduced from the standard of living and the income existing prior to displacement of such persons". Sadly, this is not the experience of Tanki (87) and Malineo (79) Moubane displaced from Tanki's ancestral home by the building of the Mohale Dam. A new phase of dam building has just started and there are concerns that the lessons of the past have not been learned and that vulnerable communities, reeling under the impacts of climate change will be further impoverished by this vast infrastructure project.

In retrospect their old life seems idyllic - "We were able to feed our family throughout the year", states Malineo. "We used to sell the surplus to neighbours when they needed food", adds Tanki. They didn't have a lot of land, but the fields in the valley were fertile. The first signs were when they saw road construction taking place.

We felt pressured because we were told that a dam was going to be built there...we were forced to leave.

The housing they were supplied with may look more modern than traditional stone-buillt Basotho thatched houses, but they have not provided a better quality of life. Tanki shows where the roof leaks, both in the main living room and the bedroom - previously he would have been able to renew the thatch himself but he doesn't have the money or skills to fix the metal sheeting roof. Also the traditional houses are built to withstand the harsh winters - they both find the modern houses cold and expensive to heat.

Although they receive an annual compensation payment it doesn't take into account the loss of their fruit trees and other communal resources they had available before. "It's not enough to cover our needs." Compensation is also only to last 50 years, whereas land is the basis of rural security and is passed from generation to generation. All those affected are concerned about what will happen to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren once the compensation has stopped.

And now their lives have been worsened further by climate change. Malineo explains, "When I grew up as a little girl, the weather was good, but now it's surprising us. It used to rain a lot, but now the rain is erratic and we see a lot of wind and it's very dry". When it does rain, it's often at the wrong time of the growing season and sometimes torrential, damaging the crops: "We don't get any fine drops anymore, we get very heavy rain that washes away the soil," Tanki says.

Malineo's conclusion is, "Life is very difficult for us, because we don't have any other means of survival here. We're just hopeless". A far cry from even the modest ambition to 'not reduce' their standard of living.

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Dam threatens food security in Lesotho

peter.murphy — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:57:58 +0000

Sechaba Khatleli discovers that his field by the river is going to be flooded by the Polihali dam in Lesotho.

"I can't really expain how I feel", Sechaba Khatleli responds to the news that his field down in Lesotho's highland Senqu valley is going to be flooded by the Polihali dam. Fields in the valley are particularly valuable - they are more fertile, moister, and the valley walls are perforated with caves. The caves are not only home to some of Lesotho's most spectacular heritage - rock art left by earlier residents of the area, but also have a vital practical use. During the harsh winters that affect the highlands farmers shelter their livestock in the caves and can feed them from grass gathered along the river banks which is less affected by the heavy snowfalls.

Lesotho has been severely affected by climate change - both prolonged droughts during the short highland growing season, and unseasonal torrential rains that can destroy crops and wash away the thin topsoil. Feeding the family has become a greater and greater struggle over the past decade with a particularly disastrous harvest last season. The loss of good fertile land to the dam seems like the latest of a series of blows and Sechaba isn't convinced about the quality of compensation he will receive. It has been promised for 50 years, will it feed his family throughout this period and what will happen to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren after that?

The fields were passed on from generation to generation, and I was also hoping I would pass it on.

Mabusetsa Lenka Thamae, from ActionAid partner organisation, Transformation Resource Centre, points out that although Lesotho receives money for the water that will be exported to South Africa from the dam, the communities directly affected stand to lose out. There is also the irony of small-holder farmers struggling with insufficient rainfall having to make way for a dam which will not provide any water to help them grow food.

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Climate divides families as rains fail in Lesotho

peter.murphy — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:21:09 +0000

Malekheto Mokoatle describes her struggle to feed her children after a failed harvest and Bruno Sekoli, Lesotho's Chief Negotiator at the COP17 climate talks admits that rain-fed agriculture is failing and urgent measures are needed to adapt.

After last year's disastrous harvest which delivered a fraction of previous yields, Malekheto Mokoatle's husband has had to leave the family home high up in the mountains of Lesotho to seek work in South Africa. He sends money home, but this is only a partial solution and Malekheto doesn't see things getting any better. With her husband away from home she has to get someone else to plough their fields, and share the harvest in return. She is concerned that her children are not getting a good diet and sometimes they are excluded from school becasue she can't pay fees or for uniforms. Her husband will borrow money if he doesn't have any, but the family seems to be getting poorer year by year.

Compared to her childhood when things were 'beautiful' - there was grass on the mountains and firewood to be collected, Malekheto believes things are getting worse and that agriculture will be impossible within another five years.

However, she does believe there's a solution, "It would be a great help if we could get support with irrigation for our fields becasue the main problem for our crops is water".

Ts'eliso Bruno Sekoli, Lesotho's Chief Negotiator at the COP17 climate talks admits that rain-fed agriculture is failing in Lesotho and that the last 18 months have seen the worst impacts so far of a deteriorating situation. He believes that adaptation measures are urgently needed to support poor farmers - new drought resistant seeds and irrigation to overcome the worst effects.

Will rich country negotiators take note of the need for clear and decisive action just 100 miles away from their meeting place in Durban?

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New dam threatens Lesotho village

peter.murphy — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 10:42:43 +0000

The small village of Polihali, set high above the spectacular gorge of the Senqu river has suffered from climate change like the rest of Lesotho. Poor farmers struggle to survive from thin soils and erratic rainfall. Now work has started to construct a major dam which will swallow up fields and disrupt their lives, but their parched fields will not benefit from the water - it will all be exported to South Africa.

The small village of Polihali, is perched high above the spectacular gorge of the Senqu river and has suffered from climate change like the rest of Lesotho. Poor farmers struggle to survive from thin soils and erratic rainfall.

Acting chief of the village, Mamaloja Polihali, describes how different it was when she first came to the village in 1976:

I look back with pride in that it was a time of plenty... We had food, and everyone was living well

However weather patterns have been severely disrupted - droughts when the rains should come and then unseasonal torrential rains washing away precious topsoil and destroying harvests.

Now work has started to construct a huge dam as part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. Even in the first few days of construction it has already impacted the community. Paballo Polihali's field lies almost on the lip of the Senqu gorge, and the new access road has cut through his land. The promised compensation has not yet arrived and Paballo says, "We have lost trust in them, we wonder how we are going to go on working with them?"

Many of the village's most fertile fields are down in the valley and will be flooded by the dam. Mamaloja is concerned about the whole concept of compensation - the authorities are setting the values and the terms - and she doesn't think this is right. Also, land is the villagers' only security. What happens when the compensation cash runs out? What will future generations live on?

The ultimate irony is that these water-stressed farmers won't benefit from the vast lake that will be formed to irrigate their remaining fields - all the water is for export to South Africa.

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Malisemelo battles climate change to feed her family in Lesotho

peter.murphy — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:05:57 +0000

Malisemelo Mosola struggles to feed her six dependants - a son, and five grandchildren, including an orphan. She is losing the battle against an ever deteriorating climate in the harsh conditions of mountainous Lesotho.

Malisemelo is a widow of 60, but isn't making any plans for retirement. She's head of the household responsible for feeding six others - her son, and five grandchildren, including one orphan.

Her biggest problem is the weather - there's been a disastrous crash in the harvests she gets. From eighteen 80kg sacks of maize, the yield has declined over the years, and in the last disastrous growing season she only got one sack. That's only enough to feed the family for two months.

So she and her son have to take whatever casual work they can get to scrape by - she labours down the steep slopes to the stream near her village to do laundry for neighbours, and hopes to earn enough to feed the family for a day. It's an exhausting climb with the wet clothes back up the rough terrain in near gale force winds. If there isn't any work, she'll have to borrow food, and owe it to the next harvest.

A failed harvest also means no seed to grow this season, so she's had to borrow seed as well. The problem is that the rains haven't arrived and the ground is hard. In the mountains there's only a short growing season, so she can't delay planting but has little confidence in getting a decent harvest. Life seems a constant downward spiral for Malisemelo.

Her situation is typical of many poor farmers in the highlands of Lesotho - rain fed agriculture is failing, and there's barely any support to help people like her to adapt to this new situation.

There are solutions - there is potential for small community managed dams in the mountains to provide water for irrigation, for introducing new drought resistant crops, or varieties that will mature more quickly. But this needs investment and Lesotho is a poor country.

The COP17 climate talks are taking place in Durban, little more than 100 miles away from Malisemelo's home. Will rich country negotiators realise the responsibility they have to reach a just climate deal, so that families like Malisemelo's can have some hope in the future?

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