Bridging waters: Water for Economic Development

From villages to cities; from farms to factories; from schools to parks… competing demands for water in the water-scarce Southern Africa region calls for nations to work together towards economic development and regional integration. Water quenches our thirst; washes us; supports our farmers and mines; offers a cheap and renewable energy supply for our homes and factories; and provides transport. Uncertain access to water is a threat to economic development and social equity as growing numbers of people make increasing demands for a limited resource. The transboundary nature of Southern Africa’s watercourses highlights the importance of sharing this strategic resource, for example in the form of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), which transfers water from the highlands of Lesotho to the economic powerhouse of South Africa’s Gauteng Province. The SADC Water Division aims to create regional consensus regarding the management and implementation of water strategies to tackle the region’s escalating challenges of capacity building, infrastructure development, irrigated agriculture, food and energy security, and provision of drinking water and sanitation.

SADC’s Protocol on Shared Watercourses sets out the principles that guide river basin organisations such as the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) as they collect vital data, devise practical management strategies and coordinate integrated water resources management (IWRM) as we realize our goal of “Water for Development”…