Lesotho villagers complain of damage from water project backed by African Development Bank

Eighteen rural communities in Lesotho have filed a complaint with the African Development Bank (AfDB) over its funding of a multibillion-pound water project whose construction process they claim has ruined fields, polluted water sources and damaged homes.

About 1,600 people living in the villages in Mokhotlong district in north-east Lesotho are demanding transparency over planned forced relocations and compensation they say they have not been consulted on.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is scheduled for completion by 2029, a decade later than planned. It will transport water from landlocked Lesotho to a region containing South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg, at an estimated cost of 54bn rand (£2.28bn), according to a parliamentary briefing by South African officials in May.

Last week, the Lesotho communities, represented by the Lesotho-based Seinoli Legal Centre and the US NGO Accountability Counsel, filed a complaint with the AfDB’s independent recourse mechanism (IRM). They asked the IRM to recommend that the AfDB board suspend the project until their concerns are resolved.

Read the full article from The Guardian here.