page_title: Katse Dam
section_title: Environmental impact
hierarchical_section_title: Katse Dam / Environmental impact
caption_attribution_description: Satellite picture of Katse Dam reservoir, Lesotho.
context_page_description: The Katse Dam, a concrete arch dam on the Malibamat'so River in Lesotho, is Africa's second largest double-curvature arch dam. The dam is part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which will eventually include five large dams in remote rural areas. The dam is just below the confluence of the Bokong River, which forms the western arm of the Katse reservoir.
  The potential of the project was identified by the South African civil engineer Ninham Shand as a possible means to supplement the water supply to South Africa. The World Bank arranged a treaty between the governments of South Africa and Lesotho, allowing the project to proceed.
context_section_description: The mass of water gave rise to induced seismicity. Farmers who lost land to the project have had trouble re-establishing new livelihoods.  There is little arable land in the mountains to replace all that was lost, and efforts to help them with new livelihoods have by no means been as successful as the engineering works. A local group has documented the project's human legacy in the rural communities directly affected by the project, and the environmental and human-rights NPO, International Rivers, produced a detailed account of the effects. 
  As mitigation of the loss of habitat, plant rescue missions were conducted in the area to be flooded, and Katse Botanical Gardens was established to house and propagate the plants rescued.
caption: Satellite view of the reservoir
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