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Lesotho - Geography

Lesotho is a small landlocked country in southern Africa, completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa, with a total area of 30,355 km2 and an estimated population of about 2.0 million people in 2012. Over 50 percent of the land area is mountainous and only 11 percent suitable for cropping. Lesotho’s mountainous topology makes its ecology fragile, with limited vegetative cover that exposes the soil to erosion. Agricultural production is predominantly subsistence and rain-fed. The latter makes production susceptible to weather-related hazards, especially drought and floods.

A little smaller than the U.S. state of Maryland, Lesotho’s most important natural resource is clean water, dubbed “white gold.” Lesotho’s highlands receive about 1,200 millimeters of rainfall annually and are the main headwaters for the Orange (Senqu) River system. Most of that water leaves Lesotho, flowing east to west across South Africa, where the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The country-wide precipitation pattern is very obviously and strongly influenced by the topography. Mountain areas receive an annual precipitation sometimes in excess of 1000 mm. Lowland areas and the internal valleys receive 500 to 800 mm annually. The area of highest precipitation that is closest to dense populations is in the Maluti Mountain Range.

Lesotho has negligible fossil energy reserves and wood resources. Hence, most of its energy supplies are imported petrol (gasoline), paraffin (kerosene), diesel, and electricity. These imports drain a significant amount of the country's hard currency; yet, Lesotho has a tremendous amount of hydropower potential which remains untapped.

Most of Lesotho’s land area is mountainous and ill-suited for agriculture, but there is an abundance of water. In the early 1980s, less than 6 percent of its water was consumed domestically, with the remainder running through South Africa to the sea. South Africa, on the other hand, was chronically short of bulk water — particularly in the country’s industrial heartland of Gauteng, some 400 km north of Lesotho.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is the phase 1A of a 30-year scheme to export water from Lesotho to the industrial heartland of the Republic of South Africa (RSA). Project Phase IA was implemented from 1990 to 1998. Its main objective was to develop Lesotho’s water resources and alleviating water shortages in South Africa through the construction of dams, tunnels and controls—and thereby put in place the physical and managerial capacity for Lesotho to earn export revenues from the sale of water to South Africa. Additional objectives were to produce hydropower for Lesotho; use the export revenues for development-oriented programs; safeguard environmental and compensation aspects; ensure dam safety and emergency preparedness; and prepare for later construction phases.

Implemented from 1998 to 2006, Project Phase IB continued with the main objective of Phase IA, and focused on mitigating any adverse social and environmental impacts and maximizing the local development spin-offs. It included support for the construction of a second major dam and tunnel, and related infrastructure works.

Not all of the reviews of this project have been positive. Some studies have reported there may not have been enough foresight of the stress on water resources that drought and climate change could be causing. Furthermore, reduced river flows could affect communities that rely on the river for livelihoods, and some say this impact was not well understood before the project began. Besides these possible environmental consequences, many communities claim that they did not receive promised compensation for relocation.

Electricity in Lesotho is supplied by Muela’s hydroelectric power station (72 MW), with some small hydro projects also providing generation capacity. However, peak demand has reached up to 140 MW in the past, forcing Lesotho to meet the deficit with more expensive imports from Mozambique and South Africa. All of Lesotho probably has 20 to 40 potentially developable micro-hydro sites in the 5 to 100 kW range. The comparatively high cost of US$ 3,000 to $6,000 per kW installed are due to the higher cost of low-head equipment and the need for long, lined headraces. Since installations will be shut down 20 to 30% of the year due to lack of river flow, locations with existing diesel units for back up are preferred.

The Lesuto, or as it was more commonly called in colonial times, Basutoland, is also called the Switzerland of South Africa, a name well suited to such a mountainous country. To the big busy world it is a comparatively unknown land, but to those who have seen its wild, rugged beauty, it is a land of great attraction. It has an area of about 10,000 square miles, with a population in 1900 of nearly 300,000, of whom only about 500 are European. The country itself is extremely mountainous, almost entirely destitute of trees, save at the various magistracies and mission and trading stations, and at some of the larger and better-class villages.

The scenery of Basutoland is rugged and grand, with a beauty quite its own, and unlike any other part of South Africa. Entering from the Orange River Colony, there are enormous rocks and "kopjes" jutting up here and there all around, while every now and then up rises a majestic mountain, as a rule with tableland on the summit; below lie fertile valleys and more or less (generally less) level plains, and in the far distance, looking east, rises the beautiful range of the Malutis, a spur of the Drackensberg Mountains, which separate Basutoland from Natal.

This is one of the most picturesque ranges imaginable. One day it stands out clear and sharp, every ravine visible to the naked eye, the next it is dim, distant, and to all appearances devoid of ravines or precipices; then again it is capable of most varied tints, from pearly grey, dim and shadowy, to deep, rich, glowing purple, in the sun's setting rays. In the winter the Malutis are nearly always covered with snow, which greatly adds to the beauty of the scenery, but renders it most unsafe to travel. Often dense fogs come down without any warning, making it impossible to see even a yard in front of one.

The country is almost destitute of trees now, though it evidently was well wooded at one time. The soil is rich and fertile, the crops sown by the Basuto in the most happy-golucky style yielding splendid returns as a rule, and, where European care and skill have been expended, richly repaying the owner.

The mountains in the western part of the country, which stand up in solitary state, like great giants guarding their land, are for the most part flat topped, with splendid pasture on the tableland. They are wonderfully alike in size and shape, fairly easy of ascent near the bottom, steep and rocky, often precipitous near the top. A few of these mountains are conical in shape, and one or two are most grotesque.

Scattered all over the face of the country are numbers of enormous rocks of every conceivable shape, sometimes lying in solitary state, at other places grouped in twos and threes side by side, and yet again lying one on the top of the other, often the larger one on top. This at a distance presents an appearance somewhat like a badly shaped mushroom.

In dry weather all the larger rivers in Basutoland are sluggish, calm tracts of water, the smaller streams mere silvery trickles, bubbling happily in and out amongst the stones on their course, but they all rise rapidly, and in an almost incredibly short time become roaring torrents, most dangerous, nay even impossible to ford. Both to see and hear a river "coming down" is a thing never to be forgotten.

Lesotho’s mining and quarrying sector did not play a significant role in the country’s gross domestic product and, with the exception of diamond, the sector was only a marginal contributor to the economy. Exploration and production of the mineral resources of Lesotho were concentrated mainly on diamond.

Lesotho had the world’s densest concentration of kimberlites, consisting of 33 pipes, of which 24 were diamondiferous. The diamond industry’s contribution to Lesotho’s economic growth had increased from a minimal amount in 2000 to about 4% in 2012.

The Letšeng mine in Lesotho produces the highest quality gem diamonds, consistently achieving the highest price per carat of any kimberlite mine in the world. It is also famous for its large top colour white diamonds, and has produced four of the 20 largest white diamonds ever recorded since Gem Diamonds took the mine over in 2006.

In June 2017 Gem Diamonds discovered two diamonds bigger than 100 carats at its Lesotho mine, bringing the struggling miner a step closer to ending a drought of large stones. Gem Diamonds unearthed a 104.73 carat D colour Type IIa diamond and a 151.52 carat Type I yellow diamond at its Letseng mine, the company said in a statement. Type IIa diamonds contain very little or no nitrogen atoms and are the most expensive stones. The Letseng mine is renowned for the size and quality of its stones, with an average sales price of almost $2 000 a carat, the highest in the industry. Yet the company has suffered recently from a lack of big finds and discovered just five stones bigger than 100 carats last year, fewer than half as many that it found in 2015.