Water resources of the SADC: demands, dependencies and governance responses
2007
D. Malzbender | A. Earle
Focusing on the Southern African Development Community (SADC), this paper provides a background to the region’s current and future water demands. It also takes a close look at the associated economic, environmental and political challenges. <br /><br />The authors argue that poverty reduction and economic development in Africa based on sustainable utilisation of its rich natural resources remains unresolved. Instead, natural resources are characterised by overexploitation and unsustainable use patterns. Additionally, it is usually the poor who benefit the least from exploitation of natural resources, yet they are the ones suffering negative effects of unsustainable resource use. <br /><br />The document concludes with a number of policy options and challenges for achieving sustainable use of water resources for economic development and ecosystem functioning. These include: a key policy decision is to strengthen water management institutions at all levels, particularly Shared Watercourse Institutions since they are best placed to develop management solutions for trans-boundary rivers cooperation across water use sectors as well as integrating the governance frameworks for different natural resources remains a great challenge arguably the biggest challenge is the development of water resource management capacity at all levels. <br />
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