If South Africans knew what was good for them they would be very friendly with the Kingdom of Lesotho, for that country holds the key to SA’s survival and, as many South Africans like to say, SA is the key to Africa’s renaissance. This is because Lesotho has the water SA needs. The two nations have been in an exchange of mutual generosity since the 1980s when the first phase of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) began. In 2002, the scheme could transfer about 27 cubic metres of mountain-chilled water per second to the Vaal Dam, our own "warm little pond", as Charles Darwin might have called it. But almost from the start, everyone knew it would never be enough. This is because of a combination of factors creating demand that would outstrip supply, including contamination from more than a century of acid-mine drainage, rapid and largely unplanned urban settlement and the high evaporation rate at its main impoundment, the Vaal Dam. So, LHWP II was introduced in 2005, if under a...

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