Experts meet over Africa’s water resources

Kampala meeting of 19 river basin organisations tells governments to ‘share and not be greedy’

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | The popular narrative around the African continent is that fresh water resources such as those of the Nile, Congo in central Africa, or Zambezi in southern Africa are fast declining amidst a population boom and the climate change crisis.

But renowned Kenyan scholar, Prof. Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba, says there is enough fresh water in Africa’s rivers and lakes that can be equitably shared.

“The only problem is that we are greedy, arrogant and egotistical and because of that we don’t share,” he said.

Lumumba was speaking at a high-level stakeholder meeting in Kampala on May 24 where he delivered the keynote address titled, “The role of River Basin Organisations in socio-economic transformation of Africa.”

He said if Africa used its transboundary water resources properly, they can be the lifeblood and engine of its economic and industrial growth.

“I see economic opportunities in agriculture through hi-tech irrigation; I see opportunities in power generation, aquaculture and portable water provision,” he said.

But, Lumumba noted, most governments on the continent are yet to comprehend the economic potential of exploiting Africa’s transboundary river and lake basins.

“It’s not in the billions of dollars but in trillions of dollars,” he said, “Just look at GERD (the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam); the power that is going to be generated there (6,000MW); look at the industries this single dam is going to spur.”

Lumumba proposed that African governments adopt the Ubuntu moral principle (I am because we are) in their governance of transboundary water resources. Juxtaposing the economic potential of these rivers and the fourth industrial revolution that is underway, he said African governments should think strategically if they do not want to be bystanders in the revolution. He said this is the time for the African Union and other regional organisations such as the Nile Basin Initiative to resolve outstanding issues between Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan.

“You need electricity to support this revolution and water provides the base for generating sustainable electricity, but in order to harness these resources, we will have to nurture diplomacy,” he said, adding that no one should be made to believe that the belligerence between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan cannot escalate into war.

The four-day meeting in Kampala (May 23-26), the first of its kind on the continent, attracted over 130 experts from 19 African Lake and River Basin Organisations, Regional Economic Communities such as the EAC and ECOWAS and the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), members of the Diplomatic Corps in Uganda and representatives of development partners including the World Bank, the African Union and NEPAD.

The meeting was organised by the African Network of Basin Organisations (ANBO) in collaboration with the Nile Basin Initiative, the African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW), the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and the World Bank.

It was convened to identify areas in transboundary water resources management for joint planning and implementation, leverage partnerships and other transboundary cooperation arrangements, and agree on mechanisms to promote the implementation of continental and global commitments on water and sanitation.

Africa’s river basins

There are up to 63 transboundary river basins on the continent, covering 64% of Africa’s land area. But the challenges of climate change, population growth, economic development and urbanization are straining them and exacerbating political tensions over their management.

These physical realities, together with the need for equitable and sustainable use of these transboundary resources enhance the need for cooperation between people, groups, and states. Climate resilience, economic development and poverty reduction have also become a necessity rather than a choice.

At the meeting, what came out clearly is the fact that Africa’s shared water resources present opportunities for socio-economic development and knowledge and investment is required to translate these resources into social, economic, environmental, and political benefits.

Some direct benefits include; pumping water for domestic use, hydropower generation, agriculture, livestock watering, irrigation, industry, navigation, tourism, mining and environmental sustainability, among others, while indirect benefits include; the engagements on other bilateral and multilateral nature, trade and regional integration, regional peace and security. With these wide-ranging benefits on show, the delegates were made to understand that transboundary waters should be a uniting factor that calls for working together for sustainable cooperative development.

Eng. Sylvester Matemu, the current president of the African Network of Basin Organisations (ANBO) who doubles as the executive director of the Nile Basin Initiative, an organisation of ten countries that share the Nile River noted that Africa’s 19 river basin organisations are navigating complex challenges.

“It is important that we work together to govern, invest, monitor and manage with resilience the common resources we have as a unified force at basin levels,” he said, “The success of our endeavours hinges upon fostering strong partnerships, sharing best practices, and implementing sustainable solutions that benefit all stakeholders involved.”

The African continent, which is dependent on its natural resources, faces challenges of over-exploitation, degradation, a fast-growing population, urbanization, pollution, and extreme events from impacts of climate change.

According to the World Economic Forum’s global risk report 2015, water crises were flagged as the top global risk in terms of impacts. Meanwhile, the Living Planet Report reveals that freshwater species are declining at an average rate of 76%, much faster that their terrestrial and marine counterparts. These findings highlight the importance of conversations governments and experts should engage in to achieve sustainable development.

“These resources are shared by a number of countries and for you to manage them in a sustainable manner, you need to bring these countries together. There are both tangible and intangible benefits of bringing and working together,” says Dr. Callist Tindimugaya, the Commissioner in charge of water resources planning and regulation at Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment.

He told The Independent on the sidelines of the meeting that the conference was convened with the main objective of bringing together all river basin organizations under the continental-wide umbrella organisations; the African Basin Organisations (ANBO).

“We want them to share experiences and at the end of the day we want to see how we cause socio-economic development through utilization of those basin organisations,” he said.

“The meeting has come up at the right time. We want to see the common problems and challenges and then see how we can jointly plan, peer review, implement and provide a stronger forum to advise the African Union on matters of water management and development,” said Dr. Florence Grace Adongo, the Director for Water Resources Management in Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment who also doubles as the Technical Advisory Committee member for the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI).

Pape Ndiouga Ndiaye, the project lead for the UNDP/GEF at ANBO in Dakar, Senegal, told The Independent that it is important to create momentum and commitment to address the identified challenges.

“It’s important to involve the governments on the continent. We need to build a roadmap that is inclusive and involves everyone on the continent so that we achieve SDG6 and Agenda 2063. At the moment we are lagging behind.”

Go for innovation

Rebecca Kadaga, the first deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of East African Affairs was the Chief Guest at the opening ceremony of the conference. She reiterated the importance of the Africa Basin Organisations and the Regional Economic Communities’ (RECs) contributions to the continental socio-economic transformation of Africa through various strategic interventions or joint investments. She said the magnitude of the challenges requires innovative ways to manage them appropriately.

“An aggressive and innovative orientation is urgently required to awaken our population to embark on the discourse of effective and holistic planning, proactive and sustained interventions for restorations of natural systems, and a sustainable development approach for the continent,” she said.

Dr. Anders Jagerskog, the Programme Manager of the Cooperation in International Waters in Africa (CIWA) at the World Bank noted that recently the Bank did a stocktaking of transboundary water resources-supported projects on the continent and among their findings is that while there are tangible benefits of these projects, there are also intangible benefits that are hard to quantify. He said the net worth built over many years of countries working together is immeasurable.

“The World Bank is therefore interested in supporting initiatives on the continent that are working together on common resources.”

For Dr. Rashid Mbaziira, the executive secretary of the African Ministers’ Council on water (AMCOW) whose secretariat is in Abuja, Nigeria, each of the five African Union regions faces unique challenges on the broad spectrum of water insecurity and inequity.

“In order to ensure ownership, it is imperative that all member states can at least identify with aspects of AMCOW programmes. This is, in turn, influenced by the level of participation in the formulation process,” he said.

Dr. Mbaziira said the Kampala meeting was being held less than three years before the final milestone of the Africa Water Vision 2025 (AWV2025) must be reached but information from the African Water and Sanitation Sector Monitoring System indicates that targets are off-track.

He said the Kampala meeting is one of the engagements geared towards mobilizing partner support to deepen and improve the quality of data submitted to AMCOW.

Dr. Aziz Ponary Mlima, the High Commissioner of Tanzania to Uganda who also spoke on behalf of all African ambassadors accredited to Uganda told The Independent on the sidelines of the meeting that it is important for African governments to mobilize its resources.

“We should not externalize our management of these resources by expecting somebody from outside to come and mobilize resources for us. The primary responsibility of raising these resources is ours; the outsiders can come in and chip-in to support us but we really need to up our game.”

The meeting closed with the Kampala Declaration on Transboundary Water Resources Management and the “Kampala Joint Action Plan on Transboundary Water Resources Management in Africa.”

Participants committed to strengthen collaboration mechanisms and linkages through implementation of joint programmes and action plans and to leverage technical and financial resources of development partners to support management of shared water resources for socio-economic development of Africa.

The meeting also resolved to strengthen efforts towards investment in transboundary projects for achieving the African Union Agenda 2063, Africa Water Vision 2025, and the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 6 and its targets.

It also agreed to strengthen collaboration in the areas of data and information services (including earth observation systems), to enhance knowledge-based decision-making, institutionalize high level engagements, and hold annual meetings before May.