From left to right: Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi, Sechaba Mokhethi and Cindy Sipula
A missed call, a new investigation
One morning, environmental journalists Sechaba Mokhethi in Lesotho and Cindy Sipula in Zambia had scheduled an online call with UK-based journalist Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi. The three were working on a separate investigation into water pollution caused by the mining industry in Lesotho.
But Cindy never showed up.
For an entire day, her phone remained off. When she finally reconnected, she apologised, her voice was thick with frustration. “It was the power cuts,” she explained. “The blackouts are getting worse.”
That moment sparked an idea. While Zambia struggled with constant load shedding, Lesotho faced rising electricity tariffs. Both nations relied on hydropower—but was climate change making it unreliable?
That was the question that set Sechaba and Cindy on a new investigative journey.
Uncovering the impact
Sechaba focused his efforts on Lesotho, where the crippling effects of dry spells had taken a heavy toll hydropower generation.
In his investigative piece, How Dry Spells Cripple Lesotho’s Hydropower Generation, Sechaba documented the troubling trend—erratic rainfall and prolonged droughts were no longer just seasonal inconveniences; they were pushing the nation toward energy insecurity. The data painted a grim picture, but the lived realities of ordinary citizens made it even grimmer.
Unlike many institutions wary of journalists, Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) opened its doors, providing Sechaba and his team with access to crucial data on dam levels over the last decade.
LHDA even hosted them at ‘Muela Hydropower Plant, giving these journalists access to firsthand information which allowed them to understand the severity of the situation in detail.
But not everyone was as forthcoming.
Gaining access to the Lesotho Electricity Company (LEC) was an entirely different challenge. Emails to the company were met with silence. When Sechaba finally managed to reach the company’s Public Relations Officer, Ts’epang Ledia, he was met with bureaucratic red tape—“please submit formal letter to the office of the managing director,” they advised. Sechaba advised Ledia against relying on hardcopies in this age and he eventually agreed for the letter to be sent as an email. He did. No response. Weeks passed. No explanations.
That letter wasn’t just a request for an interview. Sechaba had also sought permission to visit LEC-managed mini power stations, including the Mantsonyane Hydropower Station and Semonkong Hybrid Station. His request was ignored.
With doors closing in every direction, he had to rethink his strategy. If he couldn’t get official answers, he would turn to what was already in the public domain. He sifted through LEC’s submissions to the Lesotho High Court, where the company had been embroiled in a legal battle over a recent tariff hike, challenged by the local NGO, Section Two. The court documents became his window into LEC’s justifications, offering the insights that officials had refused to give.
Sechaba had started out hoping for a transparent dialogue with the authorities. Instead, he found himself piecing together the truth from open sources, legal filings, and the voices of those left struggling in the dark.
In Zambia, Cindy traced the worsening crisis to the Kariba Dam. Her piece, Zambia’s Power Shortages Worsen as Drought Deepens, detailed how receding water levels were forcing the country to ration electricity.
Through interviews with engineers, climate scientists, and affected communities, their findings became undeniable—global warming was threatening the very foundation of their countries’ energy supply.
In her quest to uncover the hidden realities about climate change impacts on hydropower production, Cindy was met with communication challenges from the powers that be. At the time of her investigation, load shedding had just reached its peak of 17 hours per day and the issue was being used as a political weapon, making it difficult to investigate.
Respective government institutions entrusted with handling the energy sector business had stopped giving media interviews and these delays paved way for extensive data research.
Though the investigation into how climate change is throttling hydropower in Lesotho, Zambia started with a slow mood, it gained momentum when human voices were introduced. Zambians were feeling the impact, from electricity rationing to water rationing to increased cost of living.
The realities of climate change were also visible to the human eye as shared by Cindy who navigated through the untold story of global warming impacts on Southern Africa.
During her field trips, she observed rivers and bridges that lay bare, with no trace of water; livestock that had thinned due to lack of water and pasture to feed on.
The story at Zambia’s biggest hydropower station; the Kariba North Bank Power Station was just a tip of the iceberg on how global warming is impacting hydro power production resulting in long hours of darkness.
Five out of the six generating machines at the power plant lay silent as Kariba North Bank Power Station Chief Engineer Operations, Stanley Singoyi was at hand to share the outlook of the electricity sector in Zambia.
Human Cost
Their investigation wasn’t just about energy—it was about the people living through the crisis. In Lesotho, Sechaba wrote about struggling power consumers in Lesotho Power Consumers Feel the Brunt of Drought. One of them was Ts’iu Mutlanyane, a small business owner who watched his electricity bills rise while his supply remained unstable.
“What choice do we have?” Mutlanyane asked. “We can’t afford generators. We just have to adapt.”
In Zambia, Cindy highlighted the silent struggles of small businesses in The Silent Struggle of Small Businesses Amidst Zambia’s Power Crisis. Bakers, welders, and shop owners saw their incomes plummet as blackouts stretched for hours.
Then came government interventions. Cindy covered Zambia’s emergency measures in Government Implements Emergency Measures to Alleviate Load Shedding Crisis in Zambia, but it was clear—short-term fixes would not solve a long-term climate problem.
Bigger picture
As their reports gained traction, policymakers took notice. In Lesotho, Sechaba’s work fueled debates about investing in alternative energy sources. In Zambia, Cindy’s reports pressured authorities to rethink their reliance on hydropower.
Yet, both journalists knew the fight was far from over. In a final conversation, Sechaba said, “We’ve told the story. Now it’s up to those in power to listen.”
Cindy nodded. “And if they don’t, we’ll keep reporting until they do.”
Their journey had started with a missed call. It ended with a powerful investigation—one that exposed the fragile future of hydropower in Southern Africa.
The post Behind the scene: How we exposed climate change’s impact on hydropower in Lesotho and Zambia appeared first on MNNCIJ.
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The post Behind the scene: How we exposed climate change’s impact on hydropower in Lesotho and Zambia appeared first on MNNCIJ.”}]]
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