Lesotho: The Lesotho Highlands Water Project Is 40 Years Old and Going Strong – but History Weighs On Its Successes

Big projects bring big hopes and big dreams. They also bring big disappointment when they don’t deliver on all the promises. Even when the projects work as they are supposed to.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project fits this description perfectly, as I argue in my new book on its history. Over the past 20 years I have conducted research on the history of the small, landlocked country of Lesotho and its development.

Two massive dams – Katse and Mohale – and storage reservoirs in Lesotho have been…