Leemisa Thuseho
THE Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) is advocating the protection of wetlands within the Polihali Dam and other Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) catchments.
And in an effort to mobilise stakeholders and enhance the protection efforts, the LHDA, in collaboration with the Department of Environment (DOE) under the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, held a one-day workshop at Thaba-Bosiu Cultural Village, in Maseru, this week.
The workshop was organised for principal chiefs, members of the parliament’s portfolio committee on natural resources, district administrators, senior officials from the DOE and the LHDA.
The stakeholders were sensitised on the unfavourable degradation of the wetlands in the highlands of Lesotho.
The workshop formed part of the initiatives intended to mobilise stakeholders to conserve wetlands within Polihali and other LHWP catchments. They are being implemented through the LHDA’s Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) Plan.
Studies and field assessments have revealed that wetlands were characterised by decomposition resulting in loss of peat, soil erosion forming gullies and losing their water storage function due to unsustainable land use practices.
There were also other threats like the increasing droughts and floods brought about by the changing climate.
The wetlands deemed key for water delivery in the LHWP catchments; Katse and Polihali are concentrated on the headwaters of Motete, Khubelu, Senqu, Sehonghong, Mokhotlong and Moremoholo rivers. They were said to be experiencing the same fate of losing their water storage function due to unsustainable land use practices.
These wetlands are found within the area that was proposed for establishment of the protected areas by the Maloti-Drakensberg Transfrontier Project (MDPT).
MDTP addresses the conservation and community development issues in the Maloti-Drakensberg Mountains- a mountainous zone along the southern, eastern, and northern borders of Lesotho and South Africa.
Under the project, Lesotho now has Sehlabathebe National Park, Tṧehlanyane Nature Reserve and Bokong Nature Reserve as protected areas.
The LHDA is striving towards the establishment of more protected areas under the project.
Environment Manager from LHDA, Palesa Monongoaha, said with the workshop, they wanted to seek support and guidance from all the key stakeholders in more interventions to protect the wetlands.
She said there was a need to declare the headwaters of Motete, Khubelu, Senqu, Sehonghong, Mokhotlong and Moremoholo rivers as protected wetlands.
“We called all these stakeholders as each has a role to play in helping us declare some of the head waters as protected areas. So, they need to understand why we need these places protected,” Ms Monongoaha said.
On his part, the LHDA Chief Executive Tente Tente, highlighted the importance of protecting the wetlands for the country to keep on benefiting from its water through selling it to South Africa, electricity generation and other various purposes.
“If we are not protecting our environment, we will end without having enough water and miss the benefits we reap from it,” Mr Tente said.
“This water which we benefit a lot from, is under threat from climate change and unsustainable land use practices. Therefore, there is a need to come up with initiatives to sustain our sources of water so that even the next generations will come and benefit from it.”
