Mohale Comm: "All over the world some 300 hundred dams are built every year costing roughly $50 billion. This, the Katse dam in Lesotho, is one of them. It's big: over 180 meters high costing $2.4 billion.

"Some of that money allegedly went in bribes to officials responsible for building the dam. Over a ten year period a dozen international companies, mostly European, are said to have paid $2m into South African and Swiss bank accounts. Ironically, much of the water now being collected is unneeded.

"In the furore surrounding this scandal, little attention has been paid to the way of life that is being drowned by this massive project - the largest in Africa.

"In tonight's Earth Report we tell the story of a displaced people, the indigenous Basotho whose homes are being submerged and whose lives' are being changed forever."

Title - NATURE BE DAMMED

Male Speaker: "We have Sesotho traditional laws to protect our resources. We have seen over time, if we don't preserve the land, our animals will starve in winter. These preserved areas protect our environment.

Female Speaker farmers wife: "I like this land Molikaliko as we don't buy anything here. Everything we use is free. We don't pay for water or for firewood."

Female Speaker herbalist: "We survive on the plants from these mountains. This is our traditional Sesotho hospital. We treat the sick in the way given to us by our ancestors."

Male Speaker Hatted Herdsman: "We the people of this area have organised ourselves so we can teach our children and great grandchildren about wild animals. They must know what a rhoebuck is by seeing it. When we say red rock rabbit, or have, they must know it. We can do this by protecting these animals in our area."

Mama Tspane: "I was made chief by the Principal Chief of Thabu Bosiu Morena Khoabane Theko. The area under my authority covers the Senqunyane and the Bokong. The ward chief and the people are allowed to use this land... At times, the people and the development committees select an area for conservation."

Male Speaker Marijuana farmer: "In the past cattle grazed everywhere in the mountains. There were no barren hills like those. Hills were covered in grass that was so plentiful it couldn't be used up..Cattle can cause soil erosion. When the rains, the soil is carried away. This leaves bare rock and bad gullies."

Another Male Speaker, Tspane son: "If we see that an area is eroded like this one which has not been under protection, it will not be grazed for two years. In the third year the cattle are allowed to graze again. When we have done this, soil is conserved and erosion is prevented. The grass will not be eaten up or uprooted. For as long as I live, I will pass on this knowledge to my sons who will pass it on to their sons.

Another Male Speaker Hatted farmer: "I'm a livestock farmer. I have sheep and goats, and I sell wool and mohair. I have oxen that plough my fields. My cows provide milk that we use and sell. The time for sending animals to the cattleposts is decided by the people together with the chief. Everyone attends the meeting and the decision is made together."

Comm: "Taking cattle and sheep to remote mountain pastures means herdboys must live with their flocks for up to 6 months."

Another Male Speaker herdboy: "In the mountains its tough. Last year I had serious problems with my sheep. There was a snowstorm and some of my sheep got separated from the flock. When I went to look for them the next day, they were so hungry they were eating each others wool. It was hard walking through the snow, but I struggled along with my dogs until we brought them back home. At night you wonder if thieves will steal your animals. But otherwise everything is fine."

Male Speaker Hatted herdsman: "But people are eager to hunt and kill jackals because they are very destructive. Jackals destroy in this way when it gets to a flock of sheep a jackal won't only kill one. It will kill many. In one night it will eat one sheep, the kill or more others without eating them. This is one animal that cannot be protected in the mountains. Whenever it is seen it is hunted down and killed."

Male Speaker herdboy: "We don't work hard. We relax and have a lot of fun. Some play instruments like the sekhankula, and sing all the Sesotho songs. It's so much fun. You may want to leave town and join us!"

Male Speaker Hatted herdsman (again): "There is a grazing area. There are different kinds of grasses here. And they are many. During the months of September and October, it is ploughing in the villages. Here is plenty of grass as it has been protected. In the villages there is no grass. When we notice it is getting finished. We drive our animals back down to the villages. The following year, after the ploughing season, the grass will have grown and matured once more."

Another Male Speaker (His Companion): "Because we live in groups when we get sick one us goes home to report it. For things like stomach problems, we treat ourselves with plants that clear the stomach. We do report everything when our parents come."

Comm: "Knowledge of indigenous plants and herbs and their medicinal uses is critical for community health."

Female Speaker Herbalist: "I treat people with medicinal plants which are given to me by my ancestors. When I treat a sick person, they pay me when they are healed. Then I can survive and support my children. Traditional healers with beads like us don't sell medicines. We earn a living by using them to treat sick people. After a diagnosis I grind the medicine sometimes I use setima mollo, mahlaba-a-kusent, or wild animal fats. Or fat from snakes such as the rinkhals. I mix all of them to treat the patient. This is phate-ea-ngaka?"

Female Speaker talking to her Friend: "Do you know what it does?"

"I know it is used with feko for protection against lightning. It also used to appease ancestors when they appear in unpleasant dreams. You boil it and the patient drinks it. It will penetrate the lungs of a sick person and heat them. This is the cure for a chest pains and bad viruses. What they call TB in English. I also know that phate-ea ngaka is used when there is a
dispute".

"What do you do with it?"

"I roll it into a ring and put it in my shoes. Yes that is what I do. I put it inside my shoes, and go to the place of the dispute."

"You are quite sure that you will win the case. I know that my opponent and his witnesses will not be able to say much."

"Now what do you with this medicine?"

"Papetioana. I only know it is used on pregnant women. You also boil it for a woman who is barren. It will help her get a child. You crush it and mix it with pig's fat. If she has a rash or measles you smear it on her."

"This one is lerara-tau. When a man has sexual problems and is unable to perform, you make him drink this. He doesn't need an injection".

"Do you boil the leaves or the roots?"

"You boil both and let them drink it. It also is the best cure for men's sexually transmitted diseases. He will be healed and feel lively again. It acts as a driver for men's performance".

"The driver!"

"Do you see this is very hard to dig out ?"

"If you wash it yourself with it, you will be just as tough."

"No witch will affect you, however hard they may try. Now you realise the problems we are facing! At ha Makotoko where we will be resettled, we won't be able to get these plants. We will have to buy them. Here we get them easily because this is our land. We dig them, we have all rights to them. We don't buy them. When we are resettled in the lowlands,
we won't be able to find our medicines. They will be protected."

Comm: "Not protected and lost under the coming inundation will be traditionally harvested reeds."

Another Female Speaker Reed lady: "I learned how to weave with grass from my mother. I used to watch her do it and I copied her until also had the knowledge. With this loli I weave large mats, beer sleeves, small mats, ropes and grass mats. Basotho hats. I find the loli only along the Senqunyane River. The moseea at the jordane River. There is no moseea on the Senqunyane. Moseea is protected naturally because the cows prefer other types of grass. The chiefs protect this loli. Along the river at ha Koporate you must be given permission to harvest it."

Male Speaker Tspane Son (again): "In this place, whether it is winter or summer, even though winters are dry, there are some wetlands which never dry up, there where that marsh with reeds curve.

"There is another down there which has become a spring. Even in the worst of droughts there is always water there. I think that we don't have the means to protect these wetlands, because they never dry up. Because of the water, plants like lesuoane grow there. Lesuoane is always green..."

Comm: "To know their homelands, to keep society intact and to grow wealth in their cattle, initiation ceremonies maintain Sesotho traditions."

Another Male Speaker (Older Villager) at ceremony: "It is a according to Sesotho custom and tradition that I initiate these young Basotho men_.We teach them always to respect everybody_..These you men are taught about many things. They are taught about snakes like qoane which hide in a goat's wool and can't be seen. There is a puffadder, a very wild snake that can kill 20 or more cattle at a time. To protect the initiates against these snakes and other evils, a traditional doctor treats them by cutting them with a blade putting some medicine into the cut.

"Did you see what that man was doing?, he was driving away those clouds. I work with this woman doctor here at my 5th initiation school and she makes the incisions. She knows how to make the rain. Rain do you understand me? I mean rain. I won't make any cuts on the boys without rain falling. Even yesterday, you saw rain was coming but we drove it away so that the sun could shine.

"The dam is going to collect the water and pass it to South Africa. The big problem is that those who will lose a lot are the people who live near the dam_.. The fields that produce our food are down there). But we have been told to leave this place. It will phase out our customs. It will swallow up all the plants we dig out and use. There are many medicinal plants which my grandparents and my father knew, and which I also know. They are plentiful in these mountains."

Caption:
Most people in this film now live higher up the mountains in resettlement villages or on the outskirts of Lesotho's capital. Few are working. Water conservation measures could have delayed dam building for another generation. The villages could have been saved.