SOUTHERN AFRICA: World Bank Probe Into Lesotho Deaths Urged

By Pratap Chatterjee Reprint | | Print |

Pratap Chatterjee

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 2 1996 (IPS) - Environmental activists are urging the World Bank to launch an independent probe into the deaths last month of five striking workers at a dam construction site in the tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho.

The California-based International Rivers Network (IRN) is calling on the World Bank — which provided 110 million dollars in loans towards construction of the Katse dam — to find out what happened during police clashes with the local employees of five foreign engineering companies.

“The World Bank (must) use its good offices to ensure that an M impartial, independent investigation is conducted, and that the perpetrators of this tragedy are brought to justice,” says Lori Pottiger, IRN’s southern African campaigner.

Donal O’Leary, the acting task manager for the project in Washington, points out that the Bank did not lend money for the particular contract where the killings occurred.

In a letter faxed to IRN last weekend, he said that the Bank “is deeply concerned about this very unfortunate incident and is committed to informing itself on what happened and the steps being taken to rectify the situation.”

In addition, the Bank is “monitoring the situation very closely, particularly in relation to the steps being taken to compensate the victims’ relatives as well as to ensure that due process is being followed in relation to investigating and following up on the incident,” O’Leary wrote.

“We have been informed by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) that they are facilitating meetings between representatives of the contractors and workers to resolve the labour issues,” the letter added.

Construction of the dam, which is now 90 percent complete, has been conducted over the last 10 years by a consortium of five engineering companies: Balfour Beatty of England, Campenon Bernard and Spie Batignolles of France, Ed Zblin of Germany and LTA of South Africa.

Katse is designed to divert water from the Orange river, known locally as the Senqu, to the industrial heartland of South Africa. Ultimately, the dam is intended to tower 185 metres over the river bed and provide the centre-piece for the more ambitious eight- billion-dollar Lesotho Highlands Water Project.

Employees at the site began protests against the companies in May, to highlight the fact that workers from Lesotho were paid less than those from neighbouring South Africa, and that the Construction and Allied Workers Union of Lesotho was no longer recognised. Workers also complained about police harassment.

A new wave of strikes began Sep. 5. And two weeks ago, some 2,300 workers were fired, while police evicted a number of others from the site at the request of the employers.

The situation deteriorated quickly.

“Police charged upon (workers) while they were in peaceful occupation and were not destroying any property,” says a statement from the Lesotho Council of Non-Governmental Organisations.

“(Police) threw a great quantity of tear gas, and as the workers started fleeing, they started shooting at them,” the statement adds. “The police were also shooting at ambulances that were coming to the assistance of injured people,” the Council charges. “One ambulance driver with injured people in the vehicle was even arrested and shot.”

Local people have complained that the entire project is an environmental and social disaster.

Moea Ramokoatsi, an activist with the Highlands Church Action Group, who lives near Katse, says that people “do not believe that anything good will come from this project; they see it as a monster which will swallow them up.”

Activists also say prostitution at the construction camps has led to the spread of AIDS, typhoid, and other diseases.

John Roome, the World Bank’s task manager for the project, says this is not necessarily true.

“Yes, health indicators are worse, but that’s partly because the roads are better, so local people have more opportunity to come to the hospital and complain,” he claims.

“What took them 14 hours in the past now only takes an hour by taxi,” he said, adding that the roads have also helped health workers to deliver more services to the community.

But the Bank acknowledges there are some problems.

“The mismatch in time between promised improvements and delivering them has increased community concern about whether they are truly to benefit from the project,” says a report prepared by a Bank-created panel of experts.

The Lesotho project is expected to solve the problems of the Transvaal region, home to a quarter of South Africa’s population and half of its industries. By 1998 the dam is to deliver 18 cubic metres of water per second via a complex system of 82 kms of new tunnels to South Africa, together with 72 megawatts of power.