by Maxwell Chivasa
Threats of water scarcity may create further opportunities for strengthening regional cooperation among SADC member states in the 21st century as they will be forced to share the resource, forecasts a new book on water issues in southern Africa Water in Southern Africa says different users of water, between and within countries, will face increased competition for access to water.
And in the SADC spirit of avoiding conflicts that may ignite wars, water will be instrumental in strengthening regional cooperation. Water transfers are being implemented from Lesotho to South Africa, and more are in the pipeline.
The new book urges all in the provision and management of water, especially local authorities or municipalities in the region, to plan ahead for increased water demands of the 21st century.
Because water is central to all forms of lire systems – people, animals and plants and development activities – the book draws the attention of individuals, communities and institutions to the importance of sharing equally this finite resource. That requires effective water management at all different levels.
“Without water, communities of southern Africa will not be sustainable,” says the book, a collaborative effort of the Southern African Development Community’s Environment and Land Management Sector (SADC~ELMS), the Regional Office of Southern Africa of the World Conservation Union (IUCN-ROSA), and the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC).
The book is the first thematic update of the State of the Environment in Southern Africa published in 1994 in an ongoing process under the Communicating the Environment Programme (CEP). It involves the three partners aiming to inform, motivate and empower people at all levels in southern Africa on environmental information.
It highlights the need to conserve fresh water and maintain unpolluted marine environments, which are crucial for life and other support systems in southern Africa and, more so, when they are shared by the region’s communities without regard for national boundaries.
While eight southern African countries have political borders, they are still united through the region’s longest river, the Zambezi, which flows 3,000km to Africa’s eastern coast of the Indian Ocean.
The book notes that: The mighty Zambezi is not only a source of water “‘on its journey to the Indian Ocean, “‘but also of food, electricity, transport, communication and recreation for millions of people in southern Africa.”
With such dependence on an international river like the Zambezi, people of southern Africa are being urged to step up cooperation in the management of the water and the resources, not only along this river, but on all shared watercourses.
In the Foreword, the SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Kaire Mbuende says that the Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems in the region provides the foundation for closer cooperation in water management among countries in the region.
The water protocol, signed by most member countries in August 1995, seeks to ensure that there is closer cooperation among countries in the region which share watercourse systems.
Water issues in southern Africa have become an integral pan of development because the region’s economies – from agriculture, energy, industry, mining, tourism and fisheries– depend on water.
“Sustainable development begins with water. Rain can make the difference between good crops and food security, or drought and famine. Water shortage can cause conflict~- between individuals, communities, countries and, or regions,” Mbuende says in the Foreword.
The region has 16 main river basins that could meet the region’s water needs but as the book points out, the distribution and availability of the water resources is uneven, some countries have to depend on rainfall, which is unreliable at times.
The region’s water experts estimate the renewable freshwater resources, with some not easily accessible even during droughts, at about 650 billion cubic metres (cum) in rivers, lakes and groundwater bodies and river basin systems, quite substantial for SADC countries.
The book draws its readers to understand climatic variations which also shape the state of water resources, as well as development and management.
But still, “the people of southern Africa have a rich heritage of managing and living with their environment, including water,” it says. Traditional African societies contribute to modem science in water harvesting, most importantly in locating groundwater before digging.
With population growths, demands on water in southern Africa are reaching new levels, outpacing all water developments. The SADC population is expected to double in less than 25 years from about 145 million in 1995, doubling water demand, a crucial concern in southern Africa, especially for food.
Water-scarce Namibia provides a perfect lesson to SADC countries. Demand for the supplied water increased from 37 million cubic metres per year in 1970 to 95 million cubic metres in 1993, showing an average increase of 4.2 percent per year, well above the population growth rate of three percent.
Even water-rich Zambia, it is feared, may experience severe water shortages of the year 2000, if rapid population growth is not matched with infrastructural development.
Water in Southern Africa warns that further stress on water will be placed on urban centres when over half of southern Africa’s population will be living in urban centres in the 21st century.
For effective water management, people must be aware of climatic conditions and the ecological processes.
“Despite decades of ecological research in the region, this work has started to influence policy makers only recently,” notes one of the early chapters.
The region’s areas that get good rains are generally known, especially with the movement of the Inter –Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) southwards from the equator. The ITCZ marks the start of the main rainy season in the southern hemisphere and helps farmers, water planners and others in the perfect timing of rain. With such information available, water experts and policy-makers have still experienced difficulties in the provision of water in dry areas far from the equator and some localised dry areas, like northeast Tanzania.
Therefore as the book warns, “the timing of rainfall is critical,” for anyone dealing with soil, planting, water planning or harvesting, or intending to use rainfall to the maximum. The book sheds light on the mystery of drought, recurrent in this region with an agricultural-based economy. Economists and environmentalists can now work together understanding the rainfall patterns and perhaps forecast droughts and plan for food imports and water harvests several months ahead.
Scientists are also predicting in the book that the global atmospheric changes could disrupt established weather patterns, so that existing weather conditions such as drought may occur more frequently.
Global warming may have contributed to recent droughts, but there is no scientific evidence. Droughts can be expected and therefore should be planned for … Mismanagement of one drought leads to reduced productivity and greater susceptibility to the next drought,” says Water in Southern Africa.
Another important area is the prevention of water losses by understanding the role of the sun in water evaporation at sea, thus bringing rain, yet on land it defeats water conservation activities.
While the sun is important for facilitating water transfers from the oceans to the land and back to the oceans, scientists and water experts fear that too much water is evaporating before use from sources.
It is possible that a lot of energy is being used in drawing water from distant sources for irrigation or storage only to lose half or most it through evaporation.
“Where evaporation is high, dry conditions will prevail unless there is very high rainfall to offset it. The high temperatures in southern Africa mean high rates of evaporation, leaving only 3-15 percent of the rainfall to runoff.
“Conservation of indigenous forests to plantations of fast growing pine and eucalyptus increases evaporation rates,” the book advises.
Water is often taken as a renewable and an infinite resource but… “It isn’t.” the book says. Of all the water on earth, only three percent is fresh, 97 percent is saltwater in seas and oceans.
Therefore different users of water, between and within countries will be left with increased competition for access to water, leading to conflicts that may ignite war.
Water issues may seem simple but for effective management and conservation, sound knowledge of the hydrological cycle helps in efficient planning. (SARDC)
[This is the first in a four part-series on Water, based on the book Water in Southern Africa published by SADC, IUCN and SARDC to be launched in February 1997. This book is the product of a process of wide regional consultation under the Communicating the Environment Programme (CEP) with funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation (BMZJ, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) and the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Harare]
