Maseru, Jul.13–Water continue to be a challenge in most of Lesotho’s villages despite being called the country’s white gold.
The country’s access to abundant clean water led to the creation of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), with the Highlands’ Orange-Senqu River Basin as the center of Lesotho’s water sector. Lesotho’s water industry now supplies various water-poor countries and regions within the southern tip of Africa.
Contributing more than 3% of the country’s GDP, the LHWP uses hydroelectric power to transfer water from Lesotho to the Gauteng region of South Africa, where water is even more scarce. However, while the water industry brings in revenue, it has also inadvertently created great scarcity for Lesotho’s rural communities. . . .
