Lesotho: the uphill journey to development
SOURCE: Vocational education and training in southern Africa: a comparative study
OUTPUT TYPE: Chapter in Monograph
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2005
TITLE AUTHOR(S): T.Magau
SOURCE EDITOR(S): M.S.A.Akoojee, A.Gewer, S.McGrath
KEYWORDS: DEVELOPMENT, LESOTHO
DEPARTMENT: Equitable Education and Economies (IED)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 2949
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/7248
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/7248
OUTPUT TYPE: Chapter in Monograph
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2005
TITLE AUTHOR(S): T.Magau
SOURCE EDITOR(S): M.S.A.Akoojee, A.Gewer, S.McGrath
KEYWORDS: DEVELOPMENT, LESOTHO
DEPARTMENT: Equitable Education and Economies (IED)
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 2949
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/7248
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/7248
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Lesotho is the second smallest country in southern Africa after Swaziland, landlocked and surrounded by South Africa. The country, with its population of 2.1 million people, is one of the least developed in the world. Mountains make up almost three-quarters of the country. The lowlands, where the capital city, Maseru, is situated, constitute about one quarter of the land. About 80 per cent of the populace live in the lowlands and foothills that contain most of Lesotho's scarce productive arable land. Land in the highlands and the Senqu River Valley, which is rapidly eroding, is suitable only for grazing and for low population densities. All over the country, rainfall is sporadic and unreliable, and drought and hailstorms often wipe out entire crops. Winters are severe, with cold winds and snow flurries in the lowlands and heavy snowstorms in the mountains. The resulting problems of land shortage, soil erosion and falling productivity have been compounded by recurrent drought. Lesotho used to produce a wide variety of food crops, being once self-sufficient in food and even exporting high value agricultural produce such as asparagus to South Africa during the 1980s. However, it has now become a net importer of food as land available for agriculture has been shrinking. Lesotho has some other natural resources, including diamonds. However, it is the water sector in which it is showing the most progress. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world, provides for the storing of the waters of the Orange-Senqu River in a series of dams. Water is then delivered to South Africa through an extensive network of tunnels. There is also provision for the generation of electricity for Lesotho. The governments of South Africa and Lesotho fund the project jointly with support from the World Bank.-
Related Research Outputs:
- Research visit to Swaziland, Lesotho and Mauritius
- Who is in the driving seat?: development cooperation and democracy
- Lesotho: election crisis leads to South African-led intervention
- The contested state of democracy in South Africa
- An unlikely success: South Africa and Lesotho's election of 2002
- HIV/AIDS and land: case studies from Kenya, Lesotho and South Africa
- Knowledge-based aid: a four agency comparative study
- Sida, knowledge, learning and capacity
- Knowledge for development
- Introduction: globalisation and the world of work, a French-South African cross perspective
- Book review: Carlsson, J. & Wohlgemuth, L. (eds) (2000). Learning in development cooperation. Stockholm, Almqvist and Wicksell. ISBN 9122018964
- Fragments of democracy: nationalism, development and the state in Africa
- Lesotho 2000: public perceptions and perspectives
- Lesotho 2000
- Democracy, civic knowledge and social issues
- Politics, voting and elections
- Cross-border movement between Lesotho and South Africa: some perspectives
- Differential access to finance capital, communications technology and capital goods in Lesotho
- Development funding in SA 2000/01
- Educational research in the African development context: rediscovery, reconstruction and prospects