IW news
iw news (international water)
Empowering People Through Integrated Water Resource Management Practices: By Akiko Yamamoto
Approximately 64 per cent of Africa’s land surface lies within its 63 transboundary river basins as compared to 47 per cent globally. For the southern Africa region, defined by the boundaries of member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), 16 transboundary basins provide nearly 80 per cent of the region’s available water resources. All but one continental SADC state has over 50 per cent of their land mass in transboundary river basins. Some countries rely on more than 50 per cent of their water needs flowing from outside of their borders. In this context, water cooperation has been a serious matter for many African countries throughout their history and is increasingly so as their economies grow and become increasingly integrated.
In the recent past, rapidly increasing demands on water resources as a result of growing populations and increased industrial and agricultural development have put many river basins under stress all over Africa. Semi-arid to hyper-arid climates in southern Africa lead to a very high natural spatial and temporal variability in the availability of water resources. Only 10 per cent of rainfall is available as stream flow in rivers, compared to the global average of around 30 per cent. With climate change impacts, stress on water resources will further exacerbate the already high natural variability. In this context, water cooperation and sound water resources management is not merely an option but a dire reality.
In the arid region, demand for water for human consumption and economic development also competes with water needs to maintain the health of ecosystems. Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) aims to balance water demands for economic and social development with the needs for environment and ecosystem health. The IWRM approach is particularly important in Africa where the majority of people’s livelihoods are directly impacted by, and have a direct impact on, the health of ecosystems and a variety of services that a healthy ecosystem can provide. Overextraction of water for economic activities may have severe adverse impacts on other economic or social activities that depend on the healthy ecosystems.
Source: UN Chronicles
