SADC has made significant progress in achieving transboundary water cooperation over the years, but more investment is required in the sector to address insecurities in water, food and energy to meet demands from its growing population.
This was said by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat’s Director of Infrastructure, Mapolao Rosemary Mokoena, during the opening session of the 10th SADC River Basin Organisations/Shared Watercourse Institutions (RBOs/SWIs) Workshop in Maputo, Mozambique.
“Whilst the SADC region has a lot to celebrate in terms of achievements in water cooperation, sustainable financing, and the identification of opportunities for joint effort among RBOs/SWIs remain critical constraints in ensuring water contributes to regional development,” she said.
The African Development Bank estimates that Africa has a financing gap of USD64 billion a year to meet its water related needs.
Mokoena said investments in the sector were critical to ensure water security, while urging RBOs to work together to ensure they attain the region’s development objectives through transboundary water cooperation.
“Despite, the establishment of several SWIs in the region – there is need to support a number of river basin organizations that are yet to be fully established,” she said. “It is important, to ensure that no shared watercourse is left behind in driving regional integration through transboundary water cooperation.”
ZAMCOM is one of the several RBOs/SWIs participating at the biennial workshop from 2-4 October 2023, running under the theme, Promoting water security through inclusive transboundary and conjunctive management and development of water resources.
The Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM) is this time hosting the meeting, a task rotated among the RBOs.
The RBOs/SWIs workshop is being held against a background of devastating effects of climate change and variability that the region has experienced in the past two years which are impacting on water security in the region.
Cooperation between RBOs/SWIs was necessary as over 70 percent of the region’s fresh water resources are shared between two or more SADC Member Staes, Mokoena said.
Permanent Secretary in the Mozambican Ministry of Works Public, Housing and Water Resources, Engineer Helio Banze said working together is imperative for the institutions in the management of shared water resources for development to take place.
“As a region, we have always dreamed of being a world reference in cooperation models, governance, and institutional arrangement for the management of water resources in transboundary basins,” he said.
LIMCOM Executive Secretary, Sergio Sitoe said the workshop adds value to the role of RBOs/SWIs in transborder water resource management in the SADC region by providing a platform for the institutions to re-strategize and come up with solutions to some of the challenges the sector is facing.
The SADC RBOs/SWIs series of workshops have been hosted since 2006 and are used as a vehicle for strengthening regional integration and cooperation.