A $3 Billion Plan to Bring Water to Johannesburg Hits Snag

A long-delayed 53 billion rand ($3.1 billion) project that South Africa’s commercial hub is banking on to end a growing water crisis has hit fresh opposition.

Communities comprising 1,600 people have filed a formal complaint to the African Development Bank and demanded that the Lesotho Highlands Water Project II be temporarily halted. Among other issues, they say they’ve been displaced by the development and denied adequate compensation.

The AfDB, together with the New Development Bank and South African government, is financing the project, which will boost the supply of water from mountainous Lesotho to Johannesburg and its surrounds in neighboring South Africa. The AfDB lent $87 million to the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority, a South African state company that is responsible for raising funding for the project, which includes construction of a dam, a tunnel and other infrastructure. Construction is being undertaken by the Lesotho Highlands Development Agency.

“The physical destruction of homes, land, and health cannot be undone,” the communities said in a 32-page complaint backed by the San Francisco-based Accountability Counsel, a nonprofit that supports groups harmed by international finance. “We therefore request that a temporary suspension be imposed on the project.”

Read the full article from Bloomberg here.