Moses Magadza
6 January 2009
Windhoek — Nearly nine million dollars of donor aid intended to support transboundary water management projects in southern Africa was diverted elsewhere after governments in the region failed to submit proposals for funding.
Experts in the water sector acknowledge that the Southern African Development Community (SADC) faces many challenges with regards to water. These include deteriorating quality and quantity of water and related problems of poor sanitation and access to safe drinking water and a lack of human and institutional capacity to manage water resources.
As it strives to implement an Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) strategy, there is a wide consensus that the IWRM is the best way to spur development but the lack of clarity and a regionally acceptable blueprint on how the strategy can be implemented have hampered progress.
Zimbabwean scientist Dr Percy Chimwamurombe, who has worked on a number of environmental projects in southern Africa, says SADC governments need to strengthen their technical departments.
"SADC has a comprehensive regional development strategy. Member states must familiarise themselves with that strategy and figure out how they can come up with projects that would complement those development efforts," he says.
Chimwamurombe, who has worked on a number of environmental projects in southern Africa, says SADC governments need to strengthen their technical departments. Indeed the failure of regional governments to apply for funds that could have strengthened these departments is puzzling.
"This was money available at very short notice and only available for a short period," says Dr. Horst Michael Vogel, programme coordinator with GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit), the German agency for sustainable development. "We were asked to identify projects for possible funding within about three months. The shocking thing for us is that (none of the SADC governments) had a project proposal, leave alone a bankable one at the time."
Vogel revealed that his organisation and other partners had conducted a survey among 15 international donors to determine which transboundary water projects they are supporting, for how long and at what cost.
He said the survey had revealed that donor support was still concentrated in major river basins like Zambezi, Orange, Limpopo and Kavango, while smaller basins get very little support. Vogel said when the money was raised in late 2007 and calls were made for project proposals, there were promises but no action from the region's government-related river basin authorities.
Among the greatest challenges faced in transboundary water management in the region is the absence of a body that spearheads a Southern Africa-wide strategy for managing water. It is hoped that the Zambezi Watercourse Commission mooted in 2004, and finally expected to begin operations in 2009, will play this role and be the driver of the IWRM strategy.
"In the end that money was sent somewhere else," says Vogel. "This happens all the time. Proposals are never readily available when they are needed. Often we have had to help with feasibility studies, which the governments should do on their own."
Vogel could not say if similar money was available to other regions in Africa or whether there was better response elsewhere.
But he has a piece of advise for Southern African governments. He cautions that coming up with projects that will appeal to donors cannot be done at the drop of a hat, and suggests that governments start salting away bankable projects in case donors emerge without notice, as they often do.
Chimwamurombe said there are many information gaps -- for example, basic data on how pollution is affecting water supplies -- in the water sector in SADC and that should inspire good projects. He said SADC had many shared aquifers which can spur development and reduce poverty if properly exploited.
"Someone can do a study on the likely impacts of using these resources on the environment, for instance," he said.
However, while accepting that lack of capacity could partly explain the poor response to calls for projects for funding by donors, a senior water planning officer from Tanzania demurred, saying sometimes donors attach unacceptable conditions to their aid, which put off some governments.
"There was a time when a donor wanted Tanzania to privatise water management before aid could be released. There were heated exchanges and we told the donors to keep their money," the expert said on condition he was not named citing organisational bureaucracy.
Vogel would not put it past some donors to attach impossible conditions but stressed that all donors are not cut from the same cloth.
"We (GTZ) don't attach any conditions beyond the requirement that projects submitted for funding fall within agreed development plans between SADC and other stakeholders. SADC is so advanced that donors can only buy into that development plan," he said.
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