Water: critical for regional development

By Pelekelo Liswaniso

SADC says there is need for multi-dimensional and integrated interventions to exploit water resources

Water is critical for regional development, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states resolved at the just ended 27th summit in Lusaka, Zambia.

Stressing the need to fight poverty, the 15 member grouping agreed that there is need for concerted efforts to improve access of clean water especially to the poor rural majority in the region. In this way, the health of the people would improve and boost development.

This is according to reports obtained during the just ended SADC conference held at Lusaka’s Mulungushi International Conference Centre.

SADC, which is now chaired by Zambia’s President Levy Mwanawasa, called for multi-dimensional and integrated interventions to exploit water resources in the region.

SADC is an intergovernmental grouping of now 15 southern African States. The group comprises Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe and Madagascar They have all pledged to ensure that there is an equitable economic integration and sustainable development in the region.

According toa SADC progress report, the sub-region is well endowed with natural resources that form the basis for economic development and on which the majority of the population depend. The natural resources include land, water, mineral and energy resources, forests, and marine and coastal resources.

The most important resources are land and water. In the region only 7.6% of the land is arable. The productivity of that limited arable land, and of the less fertile and vulnerable rangelands covering 41% of the SADC region, must be protected and improved to feed the fast growing regional population.

The SADC progress report on the implementation of Agenda 21 and Sustainable development was submitted to the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Maseru, Lesotho.

On average more than 40% of southern Africa’s population lives in abject poverty, while 40% of the labour force is either unemployed or ekes out a living out of drought-prone peasant agriculture.

Water
Water is needed to support food production and for industrial and household use. Without adequate access to clean water, people and especially children get sick and die sooner and more often of dehydration or waterborne diseases than from lack of food. Agricultural production and water resources are both crucial to support regional industrial and energy development.

Southern Africa also suffers from recurrent drought cycles, which necessitate improved planning and management of water to reduce dependence on drought relief.

The impact of drought extends beyond food shortages and negatively affects national economies and reduces SADC states’ ability to export crops and generate foreign currency. Drought also affects the availability of water particularly in rural areas where the majority of the people live.

Due to droughts and rainfall variability, urgent measures need to be taken to better manage water resources. This calls for a new water ethic in Southern Africa that is based on equitable and fair distribution of this scarce key resource.

The biggest supplier of surface water in the region is the Zambezi River, which stretches and flows for 3000 kilometres, through gorges, rapids and cataracts, uniting eight countries in the SADC region. It is the source of food, water, electricity, transport, communications and recreation for millions of people in Southern Africa.

Regional estimates put renewable freshwater resources at an annual average of 650 million cu. meters, distributed in rivers, lakes and groundwater bodies in the region, according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN).

IUCN says increasing water demand is a matter of current concerns in the region because of increasing human population and economic activity.

In water-scarce Namibia for example, demand for state supplied water increased from 37 million cu. meters in 1970 to 95 million cu. meters in 1993, that is, an average increase of 4.2% per annum and above population growth rate of 3%.

“Seasonal variations and unreliability of precipitation make irrigation much more important in the region that might otherwise be the case. Irrigation is of particular concern when considering the region’s future planning” the IUCN report said.

“Irrigation is regarded as a way of increasing agricultural productivity to meet increased livelihood demand from population growth. For example, in South Africa, the region’s biggest irrigator, only 1% of the agricultural land is irrigated, but it produces 30% of the value of agricultural production in the country. Of the total amount of water available in South Africa, 51% is used for irrigation, 15.5% for ecological conservation, 12% municipal and domestic needs, 7.6% for industry, 7.5% for forestry, 2.7% mining, 2.3% hydro-electricity and 1.5% to water stock,” IUCN observed.

The SADC region has a large number of dams for generating hydro-electricity including the Kariba, Carbora Bassa, Kafue and several in DRC and Angola. Only about 1% of the region’s hydroelectric power potential, outside South Africa has been developed. DRC and Angola have the greatest potential. Only about 4% of existing capacity in Angola has been developed due to past civil wars. The region is projected to record impressive growth and availability of affordable power could be a strong impetus for that growth.

Fisheries
The region’s inland water bodies also support a thriving inland fisheries industry. The lakes such as Tanganyika, Victoria and Malawi provide almost all the inland commercial and subsistence catches in the region totaling 500 000 tones per year. According to SADC reports, about 200 000 people are already directly employed in the SADC inland fisheries industry. Between 600 000-800 000 more are indirectly dependent on this industry, and fish are often a large part of the diet of people living in the region.

In addition to freshwater, there are also marine fisheries. More than half of the SADC states have coastal areas, Tanzania, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Namibia, Angola, DRC and Seychelles. For example, Namibia is poised to be a major world player in the marine fishing industry, benefiting, as it does, from the Benguela Cold current.

The country’s total landings from its waters were 850 000 metric tones in 1994 and government estimates such output creates 15 000 new jobs yearly over a 5-year period. The Namibian fisheries sector contributes more than 35% annually to the GDP and jobs have more than doubled to 12 000 since independence in 1990.

Fisheries in the region include traditional artisan and commercial. On the Mozambique Island of Inhaca, about 1000 men use boats to fish and their annual catch is 400-500 tones. Tanzania’s artisanal fisheries employ 2.5 million people. These coastal areas have an enormous influence on trade, use of marine resources and recreation.

Water pollution in southern Africa is, however, a serious problem that needs to be addressed. As demands for potable water have increased worldwide over the years so have human impacts on freshwater systems, according to UNEP.

Water used for domestic purposes, industry or agriculture is frequently returned to its original source polluted or contaminated with chemicals or other harmful substances, thus reducing the amount of good quality water e.g. the Mukuwisi River in Harare contains high amounts of nutrients, such as phosphorus nitrogen sulphate, calcium, magnesium and fluoride, aluminium and iron, largely from industrial dumps along the river banks.

Pollution also arises from mining products and agricultural chemicals. The result is water borne diseases, cholera and cancer.

Excessive use of nitrogen fertilizers pollutes the soil resulting in acidification, which releases toxic substances, impairing the growth of crops. About 5000 sq. kms of land in South Africa are acidified – some 10% of the country’s cultivated lands.

A large proportion of fertilizers either washes off the soil into rivers or leaches through the soil into ground water and then into rivers.

These nutrients are as effective in increasing plant pollution resulting in floating vegetation reaching pest propositions.

Manufacturing and service industries are the primary source of pollution in Southern Africa, producing tones of effluents, solid waste and air pollutants. Major polluters include thermal power stations, which burn coal and petroleum products, fertilizer factories, textile mills, chemical manufacturing plants, pulp and paper plants, slaughter houses and tanneries.

Water is the usual recipient of industrial pollution because disposal of wastes into water bodies is cheap and convenient. Eventually these wastes can accumulate to a point where they become toxic and health hazards.

In coastal areas, industries dispose of their untreated wastes directly into streams or rivers
running to the oceans. Industrial wastes are found in ocean waters, near major centres along the entire coastline from Dar-es-Salaam, Maputo and Durban on the east coast to Cape Town in the South to Walvis Bay up to Baiado Cacuaco, 15 kms north to Luanda in Angola.

Marine pollution due to human activity, in and around major cities e.g. Beira, Maputo and Luanda has sometimes reached toxic levels. Maputo had three times more people by 1922 than it could support, resulting in sewage and pollution problems.

In Angola, untreated industrial wastes are being pumped into the bay of Luanda resulting in bacteria contamination. Rapid and unplanned settlements have created a city with virtually no sanitation, sewage system and refuse collection facilities.

Only 13% of Luanda’s population is estimated to have sewage connections and 16% has septic tanks. Oil tankers can also be a major contributor to pollution in the marine environment. Some 650 large vessels transport more than 150 million tones of oil along the region’s coast annually. There have been at least 6 major oil spills affecting southern Africa since 1965.

Achievements
To develop sustainable and integrated water management, SADC countries need to build a strong partnership involving different sectors of society. People should be empowered to make decisions and manage their problems and find solutions for them. Efforts should be made to exploit to advantage, the many positive aspects of indigenous water uses.

“Environmental issues are best handled with the participation of all concerned citizens at the relevant level. Recognizing the importance of water in the region, SADC Ministers responsible for water resources, in 1995 made a decision to develop a regional strategic approach to integrate water resources development and management.

According to the Regional Strategic Action Plan for Integrated Water Resources Development and Management in the SADC Countries for 1999–2004, this decision
constituted a significant commitment towards the supply of adequate water in the region and the protection of the environment.

With the exception of Mauritius and Seychelles, all the other continental SADC countries share international drainage basins with one or more neighbouring countries. Competition for the use of these trans-boundary waters is increasing among some of the riparian states.

SADC has thus recognized that in the absence of balanced cross-boundary and cross-sectoral integration riparian countries may easily get into conflicts over shared waters. As such the development and management of regional water resources in a holistic manner provides an opportunity to prevent possible occurrence of such conflicts.

The signing of the Protocol on Shared Water-course systems in 1995, by the majority of member states, and the creation of the SADC Water Sector Coordination Unit in 1996 are clear manifestations of SADC’s recognition of the need for regional integrated water resources development and management in these shared waters.

Alleviating poverty for the majority of the over 145 million people in the region is the overriding SADC goal and priority, reflected in numerous SADC initiatives in the health, nutrition, education and agriculture sector.

There has also been a significant increase in the proportion of the population with access to clean water, and all countries in the region are undertaking policy, institutional and legislative reforms for sustainable management of water resources.

Way Forward
Regional integration of water development and management requires a multidimensional
planning and implementation approach that fosters interventions directly at changing constraints at both the national and trans-boundary levels.

Many opportunities exist in the region that will be built upon. The identification of these interventions is associated with several major issues.

The current progress by SADC countries to strengthen cooperation among themselves is a significant foundation for improving management of the region’s water resources. The key opportunities for improved regional water resources management include the following:

· A political environment and level of awareness to promoting and implementing regional opportunities for integrated water resources management, and with priority to access to clear potable water especially in rural areas;

· Political stability in the region, a precondition for co-operation and development;
· Institutional, legislative and policy reforms in all countries towards integrated water
management approaches that include environment management;
· Reforms in line with international consensus on integrated water resources management, already started in a number of countries;
· SADC Protocol that forms a basis for the management of shared watercourses systems and the establishment of the SADC Water Sector;
· Need for the international community to increase flow of financial resources.