Communities in Lesotho File Complaint to the African Development Bank Raising the Alarm Over an Unjust Climate Adaptation Project

Hundreds of impacted people are demanding respect for their fundamental rights after a massive water transfer project has brought harm to their homes, livelihoods, and environments. The project, funded by major international development banks, is the second-phase expansion of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). Established by treaty in 1986, LHWP is Africa’s largest binational water transfer scheme, and is already transferring 780 million cubic meters of water from Lesotho to South Africa each year. Investors have claimed the project will benefit the people of Lesotho with renewable hydropower energy and private sector growth. Yet the human costs of this project have been borne by local villagers who have been displaced without adequate compensation while seeing their livelihoods evaporate and their natural environment transformed.

Today, villagers from across Mokhotlong District, Lesotho are raising their voices to condemn this troubling pattern of disregard for the project’s impacts to local communities. The current phase of the project includes the construction of the Polihali Dam, the Polihali reservoir and an auxiliary saddle dam; a new hydropower substation and powerlines; and support infrastructure including major bridges, roads, project housing, and more, requiring 5,600 hectares of land from local villagers and threatening already endangered wildlife species. This project expansion creates a sacrifice zone, where local communities are forced to sacrifice their land, livelihoods, and environment so that more power can be generated and more water transferred.

Still in an early stage, the project has had enormous socio-economic, cultural, and environmental implications for the communities and for future generations. Communities have seen their houses damaged and dust-polluted due to quarry blasting for the construction, and repairs have been inadequate. Blasting has also damaged the water pipes in people’s homes, and project contractors have polluted local streams, forcing people to walk long distances and queue for hours just to access water – the very resource the project aims to provide for South Africans. Environmental damage from the project worsens this cultural loss, with damage to traditional medicinal plants, forests, natural springs, and animal species, all of which have economic and cultural importance that can’t be calculated or compensated with money alone.

Tragically, the project’s resettlement plans have also contributed to economic and cultural harm. Villagers living in the dam’s perimeter have not been resettled despite assurances they would be, enduring health and safety impacts as well as uncertainty around their eventual displacement. Others have been resettled without adequate or timely compensation or communication. What’s more, many were relocated to land that is inappropriate for their traditional herding livelihoods, cutting them off from their economic lifeline as well as cultural practices. And while this imposed economic hardship has affected the majority of villagers, it has disproportionately burdened women and other vulnerable groups, who face higher barriers to getting compensation from resettlement. As a result, young women face greater risks of sexual exploitation.

These harms were easily preventable. And anticipated harms from further construction can be prevented now, if project authorities consult with local communities to redesign the project in a way that respects their rights. This phase of the LHWP project is funded and insured by major development banks, including the African Development Bank (AfDB), the New Development Bank (NDB), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), and the Standard Bank, from which the Industrial Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) owns 20% equity. These powerful international financial institutions have clear sets of social and environmental safeguards to protect local stakeholders and their environments from harm; and financers have had nearly two decades since the feasibility study was conducted to carry out the necessary due diligence and ensure proper oversight over this high-profile infrastructure project.

What’s more, local communities have been trying to alert financers to issues on the ground, consistently communicating their concerns with letters and in-person visits to the project implementer, not to demand that the project be canceled, but to be treated with dignity and respect. They have been asking to receive adequate compensation for their land and remedy for impacts to their water sources and livelihoods, and assurances that these and other harms won’t be replicated in the future as construction continues for years.

Despite repeated attempts to raise concerns and find solutions with the project’s implementer, the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), project authorities have thus far failed to meaningfully respond. In fact, many project-affected communities have been subjected to intimidation and violence by local law enforcement just for speaking out about the project. This failure to meet the needs of local stakeholders is unacceptable. An investment of this magnitude, with estimated project costs around $2.1 billion, requires a fundamental commitment to accountability. Yet among the project financers, not all have an independent accountability mechanism – a significant gap for accountability that undermines financers’ purported commitment to responsible investment.

Continuing a years-long fight for what they deserve, communities have now filed a formal complaint with the AfDB’s Independent Redress Mechanism (IRM), with the support of Seinoli Legal Centre and Accountability Counsel as advisors. This complaint is an opportunity to provide urgent relief for the thousands who have been unfairly harmed, and to prevent future harm by pausing the project, understanding what’s gone wrong, and redesigning it so it can be truly sustainable. The impacted communities are inviting the project funders and implementers to take local impacts seriously, and to uphold their responsibility to meaningfully consult with local communities. Now it’s up to the LHDA and investors to hold themselves accountable to their own rules, and work to protect and restore the livelihoods, homes, and environment of thousands of Lesotho residents.