Healthy water levels in rivers

In our special issue on sustainable development we featured a story on Dr Jackie King and the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in which an important paragraph was omitted. Due to the sensitivity around the Project, we wish to include the original text:

A case in point, says King, is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. When the Katse Dam filled, a few hundred people were displaced, but that dam and others planned or being built have the potential to affect the river resources used by more than 100 000 people if the dams are not designed and operated with downstream river health in mind.

The Lesotho and South African governments are aware of this and are presently in negotiations on how much water should stay in rivers to maintain an acceptable condition and how much should be abstracted for use elsewhere.