The South African president, Nelson Mandela, and the King of Lesotho, Letsie the Third, have inaugurated southern Africa's largest water transfer scheme, built at a cost of more than $2bn.

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project will channel 26 cubic metres of water a second from the remote landlocked mountains of Lesotho to the dry industrial heartland of South Africa.

It will also fuel a new hydro-electric project that will eventually meet all Lesotho's own power needs.

The scheme has drawn criticism from environmentalists and church groups, who say people forced from their homes to make way for the dam and tunnel project have not been adequately compensated.

The development authority responsible for the compensation scheme has denied this.

The ceremony took place on a stretch of land overlooking the newly constructed Muela Dam on the Nqoe River in the heart of the impoverished highlands area.

President Mandela said the project testifies to the new spirit of co-operation in Africa and promises "a better future for our children."

"In southern Africa, we have turned a scheme conceived in a previous unhappy period of our history into a fine instrument for development and progress for all," Mandela told the crowd of 3,000 gathered for the opening celebrations near Muela Dam.

Dignitaries from across southern Africa attended the four hour ceremony marking 11 years' of work on the project.

The occasion was a colourful affair, marred only by an errant parachutist who missed a designated patch of grass and ploughed into a crowd of onlookers.
 

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