Mogomotsi Moloi
14 March 2008
Gaborone — The Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, has expressed concern at the slow action of certain SADC countries in signing cooperation agreements.
Speaking at a two-day SADC workshop on the strengthening of River Basin organisations at the GICC (Gaborone International Convention Centre) this week, Kedikilwe said SADC countries were slow to sign what they had agreed on. Kedikilwe said SADC countries also had a tendency to depend on donor funding. "I am sorry if I am too blunt," he said, "but I do it in the interests of the region." The workshop was sponsored by the German Development Cooperation (GTZ) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide participating countries the opportunity to share experiences, lessons learned and best practices for trans-boundary river basin management in the southern African region.
SADC will use the results generated by the workshop participants to strengthen the capacity of the economic bloc's river basin organisations. The Deputy Executive Secretary of SADC Dr Joao Samuel Caholo spoke of the impotence of the region in the development of local water programmes, making it difficult for the economic bloc to realise its strategic objectives of poverty reduction.
Caholo said the SADC treaty provides for member states' cooperation on various economic sectors through protocols. The water sector was one of the first sectors to have developed and adopted such as a protocol focusing on shared watercourses in 1995. The protocol also provides for the establishment for river basin joint management units. Some countries have already established permanent secretariats while others are in the process of operating with interim arrangements. He emphasised the need to fast-track the establishment of River Basin Organisations to facilitate the joint management of the Zambezi, the Kunene, the Rovuma and Limpopo river basins.
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