Integrated Water and
Coastal Resources Management

INTRODUCTION

Honored participants, Mr. Sechocha Makhoalibe, Coordinator for the SADC Water Sector Coordination Unit, Dr. Pat Foster-Turley of USAID, and our other esteemed guests, it is with great pride that I welcome you to Zimbabwe for the Management of Transboundary Water Resources, A Short Course for the SADC Region.

Thanks to the organization and design efforts of the Water Sector Coordination Unit in Maseru, and to the generous funding of USAID in Gaborone, you have gathered here this week to learn about and discuss economic, environmental, and institutional tools for the management of water, our critical shared resource. This is the first in a series of courses to be offered to you and your colleagues over the coming months.

While this series of courses should indeed impart skills to make you better managers and decision-makers, let me add that the purpose of your gathering is fundamentally more important than that. As we enter the next millennium, the nations of SADC must contend with increased demand for natural resources within the region while simultaneously contending with increased economic competition in the global arena. The purpose of this gathering is fundamentally about leveling the playing field internally so that our nations may work together. If we work together, we all win. I say that together, we can lift the region.

In that sense, management of our shared water resources is means to an end. Certainly, sustainable and integrated use of our surface waters is fundamental — it is the engine for our economic growth and social development. We rely on water for irrigation, for power, and for drinking and sanitation. However, I echo the Executive Secretary of SADC, Dr. Kaire Mbuende, when I say that on a grander scale, our transboundary waters can serve as the basis for true regional integration. Our cooperation on the use of international waters can facilitate further collaboration between our countries on agriculture, trade, and finance. Collaboration on water is the first step of many we can take to lift the region as a whole.

That said, water is not just a means to an end. We all recognize now that our transboundary waters our crucial to the functioning of the environmental systems which make our life possible. Sound management of international waters protects the species and habitats which are integral to our regional heritage. Maintaining minimum in-stream flow requirements prevents salt-water intrusion, land degradation, desertification, and the spread of aquatic weeds, to name just a few.

The consequent challenge facing us is to reverse the trends in degradation of freshwater ecosystems. In fact, if we are diligent, we can even increase the abundance and quality of freshwater ecosystems through rehabilitation and remediation.

Let me take a step back for a moment to conceptualize the magnitude of the challenge facing Southern Africa.

	70% of the region’s surface water is shared between two or more states.
	Every major river is transboundary.
	Every country in the region depends on transboundary waters.

With current trends, within 30 years, four to six member states will face serious water shortages.

This last point about trends is reflective of regional population growth. At current rates, Southern Africa’s population of 145 million will double in 25 years. This point is quite telling. It means there will be an incredible increase in the demand for drinking water, for urban and rural sanitation services, for irrigated agriculture, and for energy. It also foretells of increased pollution, land degradation, and pressure on fragile ecosystems.

Another point to consider is climatic variability. Southern Africa sees dramatic changes in surface water flow from year to year, and from season to season. Thus, our countries are prone to devastating droughts and floods.

A final point of which I am sure you are all well aware is how foreign debt can impede important investments. Our countries suffer from a reluctance to invest in efforts that do not have the same tangible effect or return of infrastructure projects. Thus, capacity building, public awareness campaigns, and institutional strengthening efforts are left for a later date.

Please note, thought, that for each of these points — increased demand, climatic variability, and weak institutions — a collaborative response over the use of shared water resources can help solve the problem. . . .

With a growing population and increasing demand, as a region, we have no choice but to cooperate. If upstream and downstream riparians work together, they can ensure that water is equitably distributed, at a minimum, while still going to its highest value use.

To address climatic variability, there is ample scope for improvement in data collection, analysis, and dissemination. I am reminded of a real example of two quarreling nations from outside our region, where the upstream country has monitoring devices in its rivers delivering real time data to a central location. Yet that upstream country does not share critical information, like of high flows and potential floods, with its downstream neighbor. In Southern Africa, I am afraid, we cannot afford such behavior.

Finally, we all know that there is a mismatch between the boundaries of our organizational structures and the boundaries of river basins and catchment areas. Nonetheless, there are many successful models from which we can learn. In fact, in terms of institutional development for transboundary water resource management, Southern Africa is a global leader. . . .

Our efforts two years ago, and now in this course and the series to follow, fall within the framework of the World Water Vision for the 21st Center and the Global Water Partnership, or GWP.

The World Water Vision exists to promote innovative thinking, encourage and empower people to participate in finding solutions, and generate political commitment. The Vision develops knowledge, raises awareness, is producing a consensus on a vision for the year 2025, and is contributing to a framework for action. . . .

This past May in Nairobi, representatives of 25 African nations met at the African Water Resources Policy Conference. There our colleagues, including many of you in this room, met and began to articulate a vision for the Year 2025. This course and the ones that will follow correspond with that vision. The vision is one of:

	an involved civil society,
	universal access to safe water supply and sanitation services,
	individuals and institutions of high capacity,
	shared data, results, and lessons, and
	a process of regular communication

Vision 2025 includes sectoral and regional visions. . . .

The Sectoral Vision for Water and Nature is now being developed via individual workshops on the issues of: social security, economic security, and environmental security.

The first workshop, on social security, was held here in Harare just this past April. Ms. Tabeth Matiza-Chiuta, one of the participants in our course today, helped coordinate that event.

The vision articulated at that workshop was one of a future in which all people are ensured secure access to safe and adequate water resources to meet their needs and rights in ways that ensure the integrity of freshwater ecosystems.

The workshop used these words, and I commend them to you now. This is what we are all here to do.

Creating a process for change requires institutional reforms at local, national, and international levels.

The workshop developed a Framework for Action to stimulate change:

	Improve water resources governance through structural and institutional reforms.
	Develop new and foster existing partnerships between water resources management organizations.
	Promote and establish action at community and local levels.
	Create understanding and awareness about trade-offs, opportunities, and flexibility. Maintain and improve capacity of freshwater ecosystems to provide goods and services.

Working in tandem with the World Water Vision, the GWP was established in Stockholm in August 1996. It is an international network open to all parties involved in water resources management, including governments, UN agencies, multilateral banks, professional associations, research organizations, the private sector, and NGOs. . . . .

(Refer to text on slide. . . .)

In conjunction with the GWP, SADC has a Regional Strategic Action Plan for Integrated Water Resources Management. In this plan, lack of data collection and information systems are considered major constraints to integrated water resources planning. Therefore, among the priority interventions in the next 5 years, there is a consensus for:

	Assessment of surface water resources
	Development of flood warning systems
	Enhanced collaboration on drought warning systems
	Expansion of the Hydrological Cycle Observing System; and,
	Development of regional water balance statements

If we build our capacity to develop information, level the playing field in our capacity to use information, and transparently share information on our water supplies and needs, we will succeed in lifting the region as a whole.

The Round Table falls within the Regional Strategic Action Plan. The Round Table is led by the SADC-Water Sector Coordination Unit, the sponsors of this course today. The Round Table consists of regional and donor representatives who are working together to make Vision 2025 a reality. It mobilizes resources, helps in the development of national water policies, fosters capacity building efforts, and develops bankable projects. The Round Table met in Geneva last December, and then again in Maseru in May to prepare Project Concept Notes for 31 priority projects. . . .

The 31 projects have been packaged with common objectives, as we see in the slide:

	Legislation, policy, and planning
	Capacity building and training
	Consultation and participation
	Information collection, analysis, and management
	Infrastructure

The Round Table is now costing the 31 projects and fast-tracking those of strategic importance. The Round Table is also promoting specific projects, such as one to control aquatic weeds, that are eligible for Global Environment Facility funding.

Economic interdependence, ecological interdependence, and political, social, and cultural interdependence

Southern Africa is a leader, but we still have far to go. We can build on our strengths.

The Water IQC is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development Contract No. LAG-I-00-99-00017-00

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