Transboundary Water Resources Management in SADC: the SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses

Transcription

1 Transboundary Water Resources Management in SADC: the SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses Presentation BY Phera S. RAMOELI Senior Program Manager Water SADC Secretariat, Gaborone, Botswana

2 BACKGROUND TO THE SADC REGION Comprise 14 Member States with two island states Aim: to become an integrated regional economy on the basis of equity & mutual benefit These is governed by Treaty and Declaration that was signed in The Treaty provides for member states to agree on various areas of cooperation; (Article 22) Protocols are developed negotiated and adopted governing cooperation in the sector The Water Protocol was the first such protocol adopted by SADC Member states

3 WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN THE SADC REGION Southern African Development Community (SADC) Luanda (Main International River Basins) KINSHASA Democratic Republic of Congo Lake Tanganyika Lake Victoria Tanzania Dar Es Salaam water resources of the SADC region are: Limited and unevenly distributed geographically and over time; frequently shared between several countries in transboundary hydrological basins (e.g. The Zambezi is shared by eight riparian member states) ATLANTIC OCEAN N 1 : 20,000,000 Angola Etosha Pan Namibia Windhoek Okavango Delta Botswana South Africa Zambia Lusaka Maseru Lake Kariba Gaborone Pretoria Mbabane Swaziland Zimbabwe Lesotho Cahora Bassa Harare Malawi Lake Malawi Maputo Lilongwe INDIAN OCEAN Mozambique LEGEND River Nile Congo Save Rovuma Pungwe Orange Okavango Maputo Limpopo Incomati Cuvelai Cunene Zambezi Buzi Over 70 of renewable water resources in the region occurs in shared water; There are 15 such shared watercourses shared between two or more member state Two of these watercourses are shared by SADC and other non SADC Member States

4 Protocol on Shared Water Courses SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems was adopted and signed in August, Developed as an off shoot of the ZAMCOM Processes It is based on the Helsinki Principles and had emphasis on sovereignty of watercourse states in the utilization of shared watercourse; It came into force on the 29th September, 1998 Process of amendments started in In the process of negotiating amendments it became apparent that the proposed changes were tantamount to a revision of the protocol.

5 The Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses The revised Protocol was adopted and signed by all Member States in March, 2000, in Windhoek Namibia; It came into force in September 2003 after attaining the two-thirds thirds majority ratifications by Member States; Protocol recognizes all developments that have taken place in international water law such as: the Helsinki rules, 1966 the Dublin Principles, 1992 Rio Earth Summit, Chapter 18, Agenda 21 the UN Convention on the Law of the non Navigational use of international watercourses, April 1997 Provisions cover all uses of surface and ground water including agricultural, domestic industrial, and navigational Strongly influenced by the UN Convention on the Non - Navigational Uses of Shared Watercourses

6 The Revised Protocol on Shared Water Course Promotes Respect for sovereignty in the utilization of shared watercourses which recognize: The Right to utilize vs the obligation to protect stipulates use to cover but not limited to, agricultural, domestic, industrial, and navigational uses; Rules of general or customary international law, community of interest and equitable utilization; Maintaining proper balance between development and environment protection and conservation; Cooperation on joint projects and studies; Information and data sharing; Equitable and reasonable utilization of shared watercourse systems: Several aspects must be taken into consideration in order to achieve equity and reasonable sharing The revised protocol has borrowed from the provisions of the UN Convention;

7 The SADC Protocol and the UN Convention While the original Protocol was leaning mainly on the Helsinki Principles, the revised Protocol is influenced by the UN Convention: Embodies the principles of equitable and reasonable utilization and participation by all states in the uses of international waters; Confers obligations on watercourse states in their use of the shared watercourse not to cause harm; Protection and conservation of the environment and ecosystem; The revised protocol sets out clear objectives of the Protocol It has adopted the Convention principles and rules and has the watercourse as its scope; It addresses issues such as flood control, water quality, information on planned majors and sharing of information These principles are adopted by all member states signatory to the Protocol and therefore by extension have adopted the provisions of the Convention

8 IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PROTOCOL IN SADC Implementation through the regional Strategic Action Plan on IWRMD; A special focus of RSAP covering Water Governance and Capacity building address the implementation issues of the Protocol; Establishment and strengthening of River Basin Organization is seen as a direct effort in the implementation of the Protocol; A forum for sharing experience and getting RBO inputs into their process has been established.

9 Protocol Implementation The protocol sets a framework for implementation and proposes the following institutions: River basin Commissions between Basin States and in respect of each drainage basin, and River Basin Authorities or Boards in respect of each drainage basin. The institutions shall have the following broad objectives: monitoring and policy development promotion of equitable utilization formulate development and management strategies monitoring execution of joint development plans

10 Implementation: Establishment of RBOs Move from mostly bilateral agreements toward a river basin approach: ZAMBEZI : ZAMCOM (2004) ORANGE SENQU: ORASECOM (2000) LIMPOPO : LIMCOM (2003) OKAVANGO: OKACOM (1994) Progress on various smaller basin INCO-MAPUTO: WATER SHARING AGREEMENT (2002) UMBELUZI - JWC KUNENE - PJTC ROVUMA JWC 2008 Pungwe - JWC

11 CONCLUSIONS Water is a shared resource and therefore cooperation in its Utilisation and development is an imperative especially as water resources become more scarce. There are still challenges relating to the interpretations of some of the important provisions of the Protocol i.e. the Principle of equitable and reasonable Utilisation. Water is critical for all our development initiatives as a means to an end therefore a Catalyst for development;

12 I THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION