Effective water management strategies for environmental change adaptation. Part II - Transboundary water policy in Southern Africa

Figure 1.1 - Water basins in Southern Africa highlighting transnational supplies - credit (Owens, 2015)

Following on from last weeks post on effective water management strategies in Senegal with drip irrigation, this weeks post is going to have a brief look at the effective water management of transnational water resources in southern Africa. Much like last week, having an effective management strategy can help mitigate and adapt to the impacts of environmental change and the pressure that it is putting on Africa's water security. Whilst drip irrigation is an arguably small scale, bottom up approach, working with individual farmers and communities, transnational water policy is focused on national and international governmental agreements. Figure 1.1 highlights the extreme interconnectedness of water resources in southern Africa, with over 70% being a transnational resource (GIZ, 2018). Experience also shows that "trans-boundary water resources are more likely to be a motor of cooperation" (Scheumann, 2006) (German Development Institute), illustrating that they can and should be implemented between riparian nations to facilitate further cooperation, whilst safe guarding the water resources that are at threat from environmental change. This post is therefore going to look at how these can be effective in security water resources in the face of increasing environmental change.

The case study involved in this post is the Orange River Basin in Southern Africa, with the joint management of shared water resources in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) acting as the trans-boundary water policy implementation (Heyns et al. 2008). On figure 1.1, the Orange River Basin in number 3, so look at that for some context of its geographical location. Four riparian nations make up the bilateral agreement in the basin: South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Botswana. 46% of the territory of South Africa (Hirji et al. 2002), and 100% of that region is made up of and supplied by the Orange River Basin respectively, highlighting its importance for water security in the four nations. So that's the background of the basin and a very brief bit on the importance of an effective trans boundary water agreement, now lets look at the objectives and challenges.

The bilateral agreement that was brought into effect in 2004 has the intention of (Ramoeli, 2002):

1. Contributing to regional integration

2. Socio-economic development

3. Poverty alleviation

4. Protection of ecosystems and water resources

These four objectives can all be traced back to and improved by effective water management agreements of trans-boundary water resources, thus, illustrating the need for a suitable and cooperative agreement in this Orange River Basin.

The challenges of creating this bilateral water agreement between the four riparian nations were as follows (SADC, 2018):

1. Conflict mitigation

2. Assurance of supply

3. Supporting socio-economic development

4. Environmental management

5. Capacity building

These challenges are fostered due to the "huge disparity between population, the development potential and strength of various economies" (SADC, 2018). This highlights that any trans-boundary water agreement needs to take into account the spatial and usage variability of any trans-boundary water resource. However, it illustrates that if a suitable and effective water management agreement is implemented, there is the potential for significant improvements in all those for objectives stated above.

Now we've seen the objectives and challenges, lets look at the achievements of the bilateral trans-boundary water agreement in the Orange River Basin. There has been "considerable achievements" made in the region (Wolf et al. 2003), with improved infrastructure, increased sharing of water related knowledge and significant cooperation improvements allowing for an improved sustainable and collective water management paradigm. It is through this highly beneficial externalises that the capacity for environmental change adaptation is substantially increased. As cooperation has significantly increased in the basin, water sharing is now more equitable spatially and temporally.

Overall, from this case study you can see clearly that an effective bilateral agreement on trans-boundary water resources can be incredibly effective drivers of improved relations and environmental safe guarding. Water resources also have increasing capacity for environmental change, with each of the riparian nations bringing about this improved environmental context. This case study should be the model for further bilateral agreements in different locations as it shows a context in which significant improvements have been made by the implementation of a suitable and effective trans-boundary water agreement.