About 1,600 people file complaint to AfDB demanding transparency over forced relocations and compensation
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.
