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From political commitments on transboundary
water cooperation to on-ground actions in
Southern Africa
Tales Carvalho-Resende, Alice Aureli, Blanca Jiménez-Cisneros, International Hydrological Programme (IHP),
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – Division of Water Sciences
A
n African proverb says that “two footsteps do not
make a path”. This is particularly true for the field
of water resources management as one of the main
challenges for today’s water managers is to take decisions
that chart the way forward from committed obligations to
concrete actions on the ground for the benefit of people,
ecosystems and the biosphere. Such decisions are taken
within a continuously evolving setting in which water is
shared among various stakeholders and sectors that interact
at several levels (local, national, regional and interna-
tional). As water is a fluctuating resource that is difficult to
measure in both time and space, the whole picture becomes
even more complex. It is now recognized that an Integrated
Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach is needed
to consider all such factors and issues simultaneously in
order to secure the equitable and sustainable management
of freshwater.
IWRM: an integrated approach for water cooperation
The IWRM approach is a response to the much-criticized
sector-by-sector perspective on water management (agri-
culture, energy, municipal water supply, etc.). It highlights
instead the benefits that an integrated and holistic approach
to water management at basin level can deliver. IWRM
promotes not only cross-sectorial cooperation, but also the
coordinated management and development of land, water
(both surface and groundwater) and other related resources
in order to optimize the resulting social and economic
benefits in an equitable manner, without compromising
ecosystem sustainability
1
.
IWRM is primarily an on-ground and domestic level water
management approach. However, without the inclusion of
transboundary cooperation, basin-scale water management
is limited, as national management is not able to cope effec-
tively with the challenges originating in neighbouring basin
countries
2
, for instance over-abstraction and pollution. The
implementation of the IWRM approach requires the develop-
ment and strengthening of institutional structures at local
and transboundary level in order to ensure that the resource
(surface water and groundwater) becomes a catalyst for coop-
eration
3
. These institutions can take a variety of forms from
mechanisms to joint bodies, such as river basin organiza-
tions. It is however noticeable that although groundwater is
the major, and often only, source of drinking water in several
regions of the world, it has often been neglected in IWRM
planning, mainly because of its invisibility to the public eye
and limited data.
Generating water cooperation at transboundary level
Generating water cooperation largely consists of promoting a
process of building collaborative structures and institutions,
and increased trust and confidence among stakeholders. This
process is inevitably time-consuming and often means taking
two steps forward and one step back
4
. This is especially so
in a transboundary context. The complexity of interac-
tions among countries can be seen in the limited number of
transboundary governance arrangements. Worldwide, more
than 286 river basins
5
and around 600 aquifers
6
cross sover-
eign borders. However, around 60% of transboundary river
basins still lack any cooperative arrangement
7
. The situation
Clean drinking water runs from a tap in Senegal
Image: UN Photo/Evan Schneider