source: The Herald, Harare
From Tsitsi Matope in MAPUTO, Mozambique
WATER management issues remain a major concern to the southern African region where the bulk of the countries are grappling with the scarcity of the precious liquid and poor crop production following the poor rains received during the just-ended rainy season, a regional water expert said yesterday.
World Conservation Union regional water programme co-ordinator Mr Lenka Thamae who is based in Harare said governments from the southern Africa region should try and improve on current water management policies and strategies to sustain all water influenced sectors.
Mr Thamae was speaking yesterday at the five-day Integrated Water Resources Management Stakeholders’ Dialogue underway in Maputo Mozambique.
More than 40 representatives from the 14 countries that make up the Southern Africa bloc are attending the dialogue, which has drawn senior government officials from the water, health, tourism and agriculture sectors.
Mr Thamae said without proper regional collaboration on proper water utilisation and vibrant river and dam management, the region was under threat because most of the water it has and depends on is shared courses.
“The region is vulnerable to climate change, which is bringing prolonged dry spells and causing flooding, especially in Madagascar, Mozambique, parts of Zambia and Zimbabwe. We need to find ways of dealing with the problems of limited capacity and co-ordination among water oriented institutions,” Mr Thamae said.
This year’s theme is focusing mainly on “watering development,” a concern raised at last year’s water conference held in Namibia.
Water experts had said there was need to increase applications of water demand management and focus on developing water resources to improve water supply in critical sectors such as agriculture.
This year’s dialogue is unique in the sense that local communities who utilise water to support their families through embarking on community gardens and fishing are also attending the conference.
Their experiences and concerns will be noted and discussed at other high level regional meetings.
Water experts said it was important for those at the grassroots levels to understand the Integrated Water Resource Management concept as it promoted co-ordinated development of water and land resources usages to maximise economic and social benefits without compromising sustainability of vital ecosystems.
By promoting a broad stakeholders participation, the water experts said they were optimistic that the water challenges facing the region would be dealt with as they would have made strides to empower communities to recognise water as a finite but essential resource.
“Realising the economic value of water will see communities implementing proper management of catchment areas and wetlands and be able to implement conjunctive use multiple sources of water, which include surface, ground and the rain,” Mr Thamae said.
The participants will on Thursday also visit the Umbeluzi River Basin, which supplies water to Maputo.
Mozambique, according to the head of the IUCN programmes, Mr Ebenizario Chonguica, is still in the process of enhancing its knowledge system in water and land usages.
Though it boasts of many water resources, which include the Indian Ocean, Mozambique needs to research more on how it could maximise the benefits at its disposal and share the resources with some neighbouring countries.
“There is a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of managing the water resources like for instance they can be developed into vibrant hydropower stations, which could benefit the rest of the region. The management of these resources should, therefore, be a concern for all people in the region to ensure we do not continue losing river sediments or prevent siltation,” Mr Chonguica said.
Mozambique is also susceptible to floods being down stream of Madagascar, a country in southern Africa region always hit by tropical cyclones.
Maputo is situated close to the sea and there are always fears that a better part could be destroyed if a strong storm brews on the expansive water resource.
Mr Chonguica said stakeholders were aware of such possibilities and had set up a disaster preparedness institute, which is always monitoring weather events.
“We are now moving towards being pro-active to minimise the impact of floods. We can not be 100 percent effective and of course lives could be lost sometimes and always property destroyed,” Mr Chonguica said.
The dialogue is also expected to discuss issues regarding national responses to water challenges, which include the formulation of water authorities in various countries, the role they are playing and whether there are elements of the IWRM concept in how they are managing water issues.
The experts will also from their discussions see if there is need to improve on the IWRM concept to address certain problematic areas.
