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Lesotho Research Paper

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As a land-locked state Lesotho is cut off from sea resources and international trade borne of the sea, the country finds itself reliant on South Africa for access to sea ports and the international market. Due to this geographical disposition international legal instruments exist to cushion such states and often bilateral arrangements are drafted (Conca, 2006). These agreements come in the form of treaties with provided the rules, norms and principles and procedures for making decisions also known as regime theory. And since the Lesotho Highlands Water Treaty has been signed in 1986 it is necessary to look into the sustainability of the treaty and the impact it has had. The Lesotho government maintains that this is a crucial treaty for the …show more content…

In line with these concerns of corruption, lack of transparency and accountability a look into the financial and institutional beneficiaries of the project will help ascertain the challenges that may result in development failure (Hildyard, 2005). Hildyard's paper on LHWP what went wrong centers its arguments on the impacts the project has had on the different groups involved that is; the civil society groups, human rights groups, environmentalists and the people directly affected by the project. The hope is to find solutions for Southern Africa and wherever else needed to curb corruption through re-structuring of regulations and proper implementations of those already in place, encourage openness and public participation and scrutiny to enable the sustainable development of the project. Sketchiness was also seen on the side of South Africa when it came to the project funding; international sanctions on the government prevented direct international funding so a work around was created - to set up a trust fund based in London for laundering of funds (Hildyard, …show more content…

He places an emphasis on understanding of conflict; what it is and how this understanding can help to avoid it and come up with counter measures. He looks into the ideologies behind conflict in the implementation of transboudary treaties. His paper gives the causes of conflict and analyses them. From that, those that apply to the case study at hand so that analysis/ solutions can be looked into to improve relations and minimize conflict. When a group of states or riparian states find themselves in a situation where by they compete to attain the water that is shared across their borders they are recognised by the United Nations as water disputes resulting from conflicting interests of water users , private or public and are classified as transboundary water conflicts. Conflicts occur in different intensities and require good governance to be overcome. Poor governance may result in a corruption of an already scarce or low quality water resource resulting in long periods of conflict and potential political tensions and war however undesirable. The following are the causes of the tensions; Tensions and Time Lags: Causes for Concern, The timing of water flow, Water quality problems, Water quantity issues, Water quality issues, Water-related disease, Management for multiple uses and Political divisions. A complicating factor may be the time it takes for a nation to interrupt the planning's of another

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