Lesotho, a neighboring country of South Africa is facing some problems in the construction of the Katse dam. This dam will be the highest superdam in Africa (185 m tall), it is being constructed to benefit the city of Johannesburg in South Africa, which has 6 million inhabitants, since it does not have enough water to supply its needs.
The construction of the Katse superdam will have some very important advantages, it will provide Johannesburg with the water it needs allowing the city to progress in relation to mining and the most important, providing drinking water to the population, this would better health and the level of life. At the same time the Katse dam will produce a big amount of electricity which is needed in lots of places in the zone, this electricity will be transported North in order to carry energy wherever needed. Another important advantage is the creation of seven thousand new jobs in a country with a high unemployment rate which would help improve the difficult economic situation of it, also the help that South Africa has promised (35,000,000) will better the conditions of people in Lesotho supporting the development of this country. People who will also be benefited, live in squatter camps because they do not have now drinking water and have to fetch it from a sharing tap, with the dam they will have drinking water in their homes.
The Term Paper on Robert Mugabe Zimbabwe Country South
ZIMBABWE State of the Southern Africa, bordered in the North-West by Zambia, the west by Botswana, the south by South Africa, in the east and the North-East by Mozambique. This wedged territory, called Rhodesia during British colonization, counts aujourd? hui 11 d? habitants million, of which two thirds live in rural zone. Upset by revolts of peasants without ground since his independence in 1980, ...
Together with all these important advantages, the construction of the Katse Dam will bring crucial disadvantages that will affect a lot of people in the area since the Senqu river valley will be flooded. This will change their lives: they will lose their houses and fields, their cattle will not have grass to eat and they will not be able to cross the valley for more grass, children will not be able to go to school at the other side of the river; also these people are not being informed on what the future of the zone will be and what help they will receive. These people only understand the losses knowing that most of the water that the dam will produce can’t be used by them, they feel the same about the electricity that the dam is going to produce. Another big disadvantage is the effect of the dam in the environment since it will flood a natural site with specific animals and vegetation, all of them could be damaged. Flooding the valley will also drown trees, which could be used for firewood.
Once exposed the advantages and disadvantages of this Dam, we can realise that it will be beneficial for Johannesburg at the same time that it will improve the economic situation of Lesotho but we can’t forget that lots of people will suffer and will be damaged by the construction of the dam loosing their way of life. Apart from the help that South Africa thinks of giving Lesotho’s government, it may not be enough to cover all the damage. The solution can be increased of this help together with a policy of reallocation that will assure to give a new life for the damaged people, all this has to be joined to a campaign of information that will make affected people know that their future situation will be better avoiding in this way confusion.
