Here in Lesotho it is known as white gold – the water that plays such an important role in the country’s economy.

The engineering marvel at the centre of this development doesn’t really fit in the country’s highlands – it stands amongst the herders in the traditional Basotho blankets and mud huts that characterise this rural area.

The Katse Dam is a truly impressive structure. At 185 m (600 feet) high, it is the second tallest curved dam in Africa.

Completed in 1996, it is part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which was the result of an agreement signed a decade earlier between the government of Lesotho and the apartheid regime in South Africa.

Although the country is completely surrounded by its much larger neighbor, it has something that parts of South Africa lack: a regular water supply.

Due to its unique geography – Lesotho is the only country in the world that lies entirely above 1,000 m – the country experiences relatively high rainfall.

This is where Katse comes into play.

The water is channeled from the dam through a series of tunnels and eventually enters the Vaal River system in South Africa. It is Africa’s largest water transfer system.

According to the government, Lesotho receives $200 million (£154 million) annually from South Africa for water – more than double what the country received after the agreement was renegotiated earlier this year.

But although Lesotho is rich in water, it remains economically poor. And nowhere is this more evident than in the village of Ha Ramokoatsi.

Although the town is only about 1 km from the dam, its 200 residents still rely on a small natural spring hidden in a small cave on the hillside for their water supply.

On the day of the BBC visit, at 10:00 a.m., a long line of women with empty paint buckets in their hands are standing there to carry the water home.

Some have been here since 3 a.m. In the queue we meet 50-year-old Manteboheleng Mosiyoa, who arrived five hours ago.

“The water situation here is terrible,” she says, visibly angry.

“Sometimes it can happen that a dead dog is washed into the spring when it rains. We just have to get it out because we need the water, even if it is contaminated.”

She adds that consuming this water has had health consequences and shows us an itchy rash on her wrist, which according to health workers is a consequence of drinking dirty water.

“We get sick regularly, even small children. They drink this water and have stomach problems and pains.”

“Sometimes when you come to the water you see little worms, but we still drink the water because we cannot survive without it.”

As we speak, the spring is drying up and Mrs Mosiyoa is now having to fetch the remaining water from a stagnant pond filled with waste.

Village officials say they have heard nothing despite a series of promises from politicians – dating back to 2020 – that running water would be installed.

Village chief Hlojeng Khethisa shows me the minutes of meetings with the previous government in a notebook.

“My message to the government is that they should come here and see how we live. We cannot have this beautiful dam built around our village and yet we still live in poverty.”

You won’t hear such a story on the tours of the dam offered by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority, which runs the project.

Our guide likes to tell tourists that Lesotho generates half of its electricity from hydropower and that the income from the dam is used to build roads.

Katse was the first dam, a second was opened in 2003. A third is scheduled to come into operation in 2028, and a total of five dams are planned.

Despite the growth, Natural Resources Minister Mohlomi Moleko admits that the project has not always been in the interests of surrounding communities.

“We now need to reorient ourselves as Basotho. Our main focus in the future will be on giving water to the Basotho and then on water transmission.

“We are now looking at providing water to locals by 2030. That is our goal.” He adds that he would “bet his life” that the water supply will be completed by then.

Demand for Lesotho’s natural resources is expected to continue to grow.

Much of Lesotho’s water is diverted to Gauteng province, the economic center of South Africa and home to South Africa’s largest city, Johannesburg.

It is the largest city in the world not built on a water source, and the city of gold is growing thirstier.

Due to the dilapidated infrastructure, the growing population and the emptying of water reservoirs caused by climate change, the city’s taps are running dry more and more often.

“Lesotho’s water is very important as it accounts for part of South Africa’s GDP,” says Professor Anja du Plessis, a water management expert at the University of South Africa.

“However, water demand is not sustainable. Consumers use a lot of water, over 200 litres per day, but 46% of the water that flows through the system does not reach the consumer due to neglected infrastructure. It is currently a man-made problem.”

In addition, a contract was recently signed that provides water supplies to Lesotho over a distance of more than 700 kilometers to Botswana.

The resulting economic benefits will provide little consolation to the residents of Ha Ramokoatsi.

Although she can see the Katse Dam from the window of her house, Ms Mosiyoa says it has not brought anything positive to her life.

“This dam has brought us nothing. We don’t know anything about the money that Lesotho is getting. Nothing has been done for us. We are really struggling.”