Estudio de pre factibilidad

Planning for the resettlement of affected people in the Mohale region was implemented in the mid-1990s, with the feasibility study undertaken between 1995 and 1996 (Devitt and Hitchcock, 2010:70). Resettlement processes in the Mohale Dam were spread over 15 years from 1995 until 2010, although the implementation of certain aspects of compensation and rehabilitation are ongoing. Table 9.1 below, Adapted from Devitt and Hitchcock (2010:70), outlines key events in the Mohale Dam construction and resettlement processes. The stages of resettlement indicated in the table below are not to be confused with those discussed earlier in Chapter Three on Scudder’s stage framework.

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Table 9.1 Milestones in the planning and construction of the Mohale Dam.

Year Milestones

1995-1996 Feasibility study and resettlement planning for Phase 1B of the LHWP begin 1996-1998 Stage 1 resettlement and relocation implemented

1997 Adoption of the revised compensation and rehabilitation policy based on the LHWP Phase 1A experience

1998 Construction of Mohale Dam begins

2002-2006 Stage 2 resettlement and relocation implemented 2003 Completion of Mohale Dam construction

2004 Official inauguration of Mohale Dam

2008 Decisions reached by LHDA and LHWC on Stage 3 resettlement 2009 Final visit of Panel of Environmental Experts on Phase 1 of the LHWP 2010 Workshop on lessons learned from LHWP

Adapted from: Devitt and Hitchcock, 2010:70

As stated in the LHDA Phase 1B Compensation Policy of 1997, discussed later in Section 9.4 of this chapter, the LHDA uses the terms ‘relocation’ and ‘resettlement’ distinctly to refer to the process of moving people within the localities of the Mohale Dam site, and beyond the boundaries of the Mohale region respectively (LHDA, 1997:iii). Up to this point, this thesis has used the terms “resettlement” and “forced resettlement” to refer to the process of moving people involuntarily, and making provision for the recovery of associated losses. However, in the discussions specific to the Mohale Dam resettlement, the terms will be used distinctly, as defined in the LHDA Compensation policy. Later discussions will show how the distinct use of the terms is applicable to the implementation of the policy.

Resettlement in relation to the construction of the Mohale Dam primarily affected a total of 321 households – initially estimated at 424 – as reflected in Table 9.2 below. This is clearly a much smaller number compared to thousands of households affected in the construction of the Chandil Dam, in Jharkhand, India, discussed later in Chapters Twelve, Thirteen and Fourteen. Hence, the time taken to resettle affected people was comparatively shorter. The people affected by the construction of the Mohale Dam were relocated and resettled in three stages before, during and after the construction of the dam. People were resettled from nine villages in the Mohale region, to a total of forty-five host communities located in the three broad regional areas; the Mohale basin, foothills/peri-urban, and urban areas of the capital

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city (Maseru). Table 9.2 below accounts for the number of households that were planned to be resettled at different stages and the regions to which they would be resettled.

Table 9.2 Households planned to be resettled by destination and stages in phase 1B.

Stage

Destination

Basin Foothills/peri-urban Maseru urban Total

Stage 1 37 38 24 99

Stage 2 27 190 5 222

Stage 3 103 103

Total 167 228 29 424

Adapted from: Devitt and Hitchcock (2010:85)

However, although the total number reflected in the table above is 424 households, the actual number of households who ended up being resettled was 321 (LHDA, 2007: Appendix A). In stage two resettlement for instance, the number of households resettled was reduced from the initially estimated 222 to 216 due to deaths (LHDA, 2004). In stage three, less than ten households were resettled; some households that were initially identified for possible resettlement were not resettled in the end, because of the realisation that they would not be affected directly by the construction of the dam, and also four people had passed on (Devitt and Hitchcock, 2010:85).

As shown in Table 9.1 above, the feasibility study for Phase 1B was undertaken over a period of about one year. Stage 1 resettlement and relocation, undertaken in roughly two years between 1996 and 1998, involved the resettlement of 99 households prior to the construction of the dam (LHDA, 1998:1). These were the families that were previously situated within the fully inundated reservoir area, and the areas in which the tunnel between the Mohale and Katse dams was constructed. The Mohale reservoir is meant to feed into the Katse reservoir, constructed earlier in Phase 1A, which stores water to be transferred to South Africa.

Although 99 households is a relatively small number, stage 1 resettlement in the Mohale case was not undertaken without any challenges. In a report on the review of Stage 1 resettlement in the Mohale case, it is noted that infrastructural development in the new settlements had either not been implemented, or not completed by the time the affected people were moved (LHDA, 1998:3-4). This included the construction of or expansion of schools, particularly in areas where a larger number of people were resettled or relocated, such as Ha-Makotoko,

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where 36 households were resettled, the largest number of households resettled to one village (ibid.:4). Water supply was also not readily available at Ha-Makotoko at the time of resettlement. The irony of the construction of a large dam is that the people who suffer the negative consequences of forced resettlement often do not share in the benefits of water supply. The findings from the Chandil Dam resettlement will also bear testimony to this reality.

Even though after the completion of Stage 1 resettlement in Mohale a review was undertaken to learn from the experience in order to improve the process in subsequent stages, similar challenges were experienced in the following stages. As the findings of this research will attest later in this chapter, the reflected shortfalls in the studied areas included a lack of water supply, unavailability of essential infrastructure such as road networks, community halls, etc. This is despite that the fieldwork for the current study in the Mohale case was undertaken in 2015, when resettled people were in stage three of the four stages of resettlement according to Scudder’s stage framework discussed in Chapter Three. According to Scudder, at this stage – of Community Formation and Economic Development – the signs of livelihood re- establishment and development should begin to manifest, if resettlement processes were undertaken in a constructive manner (Scudder 2005). However, the reality on the ground does not reveal much development of affected people in the studied Mohale resettlement case.

9.3 Demographic Characteristics of Respondents in the Mohale Dam Resettlement