WATER DEVELOPMENT: KEY TO SOUTHERN AFRICA'S ECONOMIC BOOM

by Tinashe Madava

"Water could become for southern Africa what steel and coal was for the European integration process."

Dr Kaire Mbuende, SADC Executive Secretary, told a recent meeting on water development that the region needs sustainable integrated water development and management if it is to produce a regional economic boom for the millennium.

Although southern Africa has made moves to implement long-term strategies and policies on water resource development and management, there is need to evaluate existing projects to strengthen their impact across the region.

The scarcity of water and recurrent droughts has made water development a prerequisite for economic development and regional integration in southern Africa.

Across the globe, various initiatives are being implemented to improve water development and management in the region.

Among them is the Research Project on Water Demand Management in Southern Africa project, hosted by the World Conservation Union Regional Office for Southern Africa (IUCN-ROSA). The project focuses on a management approach that aims to "conserve water demand". It involves the application of selective, economic incentives, to promote efficient and equitable use of water as well as a number of water conservation measures aimed at raising awareness about the scarcity and finite nature of the resource.

The conventional approaches to water management have been to construct elaborate dams to increase supply in order to meet demand.

"In general water has been under-priced leading often to the abuse and inefficient use of the resource," according to an information package of the Research Project.

"Given that supply is likely to diminish, and the building of dams for most countries now is becoming an expensive option, a strong need has arisen to explore different water management strategies."

Meanwhile, the presentation of the World Water Vision in the 21st Century and the Framework for Action will take place during the second world water forum in the Hague next March. The forum, hosted by the government of the Netherlands, will be open to participants from the water sector as well as to the general public.

The World Water Vision is guided by the World Commission on Water in the 21st Century and managed by a Vision Unit hosted by UNESCO in Paris.

The World Water Vision aims to develop a massive public awareness of the risks of major water problems as a result of inaction, as well as encourage innovative thinking on how these problems can be tackled. It should encourage and empower people to participate in devising and implementing solutions to these water problems. The Water Vision should also generate the political commitment to turn this increased public awareness into effective action.
The Global Water Partnership is responsible for the development of a framework for action to operate in tandem with the World Water Vision. Concrete and realistic programmes of action will be needed.

While the Vision will describe possible future scenarios and set the objectives, the Framework for Action will be a route map of how to achieve them. It will identify the milestones in the process and the policy measures, management instruments, investment priorities and the implementation strategy required to reach those milestones.

The objectives of the World Water Vision in the 21st Century are to:
* Develop knowledge
* Raise awareness of water issues
* Produce a consensus on a vision for the year 2025 shared by all stakeholders
* Contribute to a framework for action

Meeting at the first Roundtable conference on Integrated Water Resource Development and Management in the SADC region, in Geneva, the regional grouping and its cooperating partners noted that shared watercourses are a potential source of conflict between or among the basin countries, usually over water usage. However, if managed well, shared watercourses are a potential source of regional integration.

Due to the need to promote regional cooperation in managing shared watercourses, SADC members signed a Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems in August 1995. The Protocol aims at promoting cooperation in the utilisation of resources of shared watercourse systems within the region.

The need for a strong regional water policy that addresses concerns of all countries sharing water resources has become more pressing for southern Africa as the region needs to start the new millennium on a strong footing for integration and economic development.

If water development projects in southern Africa are to be successful there is need for an effective legal and regulatory framework in the region since national water legislation in most countries is inadequate and weakly enforced. Moreover most national laws are not consistent with widely accepted international water principles. (SARDC)