Following allegations of corruption, a local NGO has appealed for an audit of the tenders allocated in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), the world's largest water transfer operation. "Bribery for tenders goes along with compromising of workmanship standards. We can only pray that, despite this, standards for constructing these kind of dams was not compromised, as it would be a double punishment to the people living around the Katse and Mohale dams," said Mabusetsa Lenka of the Transformation Resource Centre (TRC), an NGO fighting for the rights of communities displaced by the multi-dam project.

The Lesotho Highlands scheme supplies South Africa with millions of cubic metres of water per year, while people living in the lowlands of the tiny mountain kingdom struggle to find water for domestic consumption. Young women and children queuing with containers, waiting to draw water from boreholes or public taps, are a common sight in many parts of the country. "Life is difficult because we always have to travel for long distances to get water, and when we finally find a place that has water, there are many people waiting to get a turn," said Makemohele Koetle, from Lithabaneng district, southeast of the capital, Maseru.

A crack in the wall of Mohale dam in Lesotho, one of the world's highest rockfill dams, has sparked concern among neighbouring communities, according to a local NGO. Heavy rain in the mountain kingdom led to a sudden filling of the Mohale dam, part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), creating a crack in one of the panels of the 145 m high wall. "An expert in dam construction from Europe is arriving in Lesotho next Monday to assess the damage ... at the moment it is hard to make any assessments ... because the dam is still filled to capacity. We are, however, hoping that the water level will go down in time to see how far the crack has gone," said Liphapang Potloane, chief executive of the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA), reports Alertnet.