by Munyaradzi Chenje
At a time when there are bleak predictions that rising demand for water worldwide, coupled with growing scarcity will ignite wars among different communities and countries, southern African states have a vision of a future overflowing with adequate water supplies despite that the region suffers recurrent droughts.
The vision involves stronger region· wide cooperation and coordination in the management of water resources, placing water at the centre of human activity. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries hope that such close cooperation will help avoid possible conflict over water both at national and regional levels.
Some steps have already been taken to lay the foundation for such cooperation. SADC ministers responsible for water resources management met for two days in Pretoria, South Africa, on 23-24
November 1995, to map out strategies aimed at better managing the scarce resource and ensure that the region has enough water resources in perpetuity.
The fight to conserve the last drop of water in southern Africa was not only evident in speeches made by experts from different institutions as diverse as the World Bank and the Swedish Natural
Sciences Research Council, but on conference materials as well. The cover of the conference file handed out to participants had a graphic of a suspended water drop and the words, “A vision for the future”.
However, the vision of water management in the region is more than just a drop of water suspended in time. It is about life itself, the environment, food production, hygiene, industry and power generation. It should not be a victim of crisis-management. It should be a well-coordinated and executed programme, involving all stakeholders both at national and regional levels.
South African Water Affairs and Forestry Minister Kader Asmal, whose department organised the conference, noted in his opening address:
“We have a potential long-term water crisis in the region which could cripple the sustainability of our development if not handled with great foresight
“Conflict, both internally and between countries, could arise unless the challenge is dealt with in a progressive and transparent manner.”
A World Bank official has forecast that interstate and international conflict may in future increase as populations and demand for limited supplies of water increase worldwide. “Demand for water resources from competing uses will grow rapidly, placing increased stress on water resources (in southern Africa),” warned Andrew Steer, director of the World Bank’s Environment Department.
But a water expert from one of the SADC countries dismisses the doomsday scenario of southern African communities and/or countries going to war with each other over water, saying that water management needs such huge financial investments that “we do not have the time and money to prepare for war.”
In discussing the future of water management in southern Africa, the participants also considered issues such as climate and population growth, and their impact on water resources.
Egil Skofteland, chief engineer with the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Administration, said about 50 percent of the region’s annual precipitation is “lost” through evapotranspiration. In other words, some parts of the region “lose” almost as much water ID the atmosphere as they receive as rainfall annually. He added that while a water engineer could describe water returned to the atmosphere as water loss, this was a natural hydrological cycle.
“There are substantial variations from year to year in both the duration and amount of rainfall,” said Skcofteland, an expert on water issues in the region. “The amount of precipitation falling on a certain spot during a year usually differs from the amount on the same spot during the previous or following year.”
Coupled with the variability of rainfall throughout the southern African region, population growth has a major bearing on the availability of water for both human consumption and other life-supporting systems.
Professor Malin Falkenmark of the Swedish Natural Science Research Council, said the level of water stress grows in terms of people per flow unit of water as the population increases. A flow unit is equivalent to one million cubic metres of water per year. She says about 600 people per flow unit is the level of population pressure on water where water stress might be expected. Anything above 1,000 per flow unit will cause chronic water scarcity.
In 1994, southern Africa had 360,000 flow units and the overall ratio of population to flow units was about 360, a situation not difficult to manage. But with the population projected to double in 24 years from last year’s figure of 136 million people, the ratio will be 720 by 2016 and over 1.000 by 2030. With an average three percent growth rate annually, southern Africa will experience chronic water shortage by 2030. However, Falkenmark believes that the region will experience chronic water scarcity even earlier.
“By 2025 most basin countries in the … Zambezi and Limpopo basins will be water stressed or even suffer chronic water scarcity.” she said, adding that water scarcity is a key environmental crisis. She also said it is important that the region starts thinking of population growth and distribution not only in terms of density but also in terms of flow units.
Falkenmark was blunt in her assessment of the ranking of water in SADC management structures, saying it has a low status in the community’s hierachy. Falkenmark, together with UNDP resident representative to Zimbabwe, Thelma Awori, were the only two women speakers at the conference highlighting the gender bias in the water management sector.
One diplomat pointed out this disparity informally, stressing that it was unfortunate that a strong women’s voice was lacking despite the fact that women, particularly in rural areas, are involved in water management almost on a daily basis. The Commonwealth has already noted that it is “viral that women, as end users of water, are consulted in the planning of water projects, or in development schemes which will impinge upon local water resources.
Awori said water is central to improving the status of women in SADC countries. Women spend “countless billions of hours” trekking in search of usable water. “Savings in manpower and women power hours could have positive implications for development, health and education,” she said. Young girls could use that time for learning or training.”
With issues such as climate, population growth, and legislative -.d institutional fragmentation put in perspective during the first day, the SADC water ministers went behind closed doors the following day to crystalize their vision of water management for the future.
SADC still has to grapple with the Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems which was signed in August 1995 by nine of the 12 SADC countries. Angola and Zambia are yet to sign the Protocol and have cited the need for further consultation and lack of human resources capacity for the delay in signing. Even though nine countries have signed the protocol, all are yet to ratify it for it to come into force.
The ratification of the protocol is being seen more as a formality than an impediment. In addition to the general support of the protocol, the SADC water ministers are unanimous in their backing for a full SADC sector on water management. This is arguably the major achievement of the conference.
While the ministers are pushing for an almost immediate creation of a water sector, removing it from the umbrella of the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) sector, it may, however, take longer before their vision is transformed into reality. Further consultations, through SADC structures such as the FANR, the council of ministers and heads of state and government summit, have to be taken into consideration.
There is a danger that the creation of a separate water sector may be seen by some in SADC as the further fragmentation of management of sectors such as environment, agriculture, industry and land, all of which dovetail with water management.
The issue of fragmentation received wide attention at the conference, albeit from a different angle. At the national level, different government departments, many of which have competing interests, have jurisdiction over water in one form or another. It is such fragmentation of responsibilities that the SADC water ministers would like to see eliminated.
Awori proposed a regional roundtable conference to discuss water management in southern Africa, an idea the water ministers were quick to take up. Awori said the UNDP and the World Bank would assist in the preparation of country papers ahead of a SADC donor roundtable on water management.
The World Bank emphasised the six hallmarks of the new approach to water management which:
- addresses quantity and quality concerns in an integrated approach;
- links land-use management as an integral part of sustainable water management;
- uses river basins as a management unit;
- recognises water as an economic good and promotes cost-effective interventions;
- supports participatory approaches; and
- focuses on actions that improve the lives of people and the quality of their environment.
SADC has to take into account these and other issues if the region is to deliver safe drinking water to all communities, even in periods of drought.
In the words of Falkenmark, the new thinking in water management need is. “Think regionally. Act locally.” Its main objective is to avoid supporting unsustainable development to water resources. (SARDC)
Water management in southern Africa is one of the many issues to be highlighted in a forthcoming book on water issues in southern Africa. 17ae book, being produced by the Communicating the Environment Programme (CEP) partners — SADC, IUCN and SARDC — is a follow up publication to the State of the Environment in Southern Africa and will be published in early 1996.
