The ManicaPost
Samuel Kadungure
Senior Reporter
ZIMBABWE and Mozambique have exuded rare political will by backing the technical work being done in the Buzi-Pungwe-Save River Basins (BUPUSA), and this will help to unlock funding for infrastructure and water development within the three basins.
The Bupusa River Basins flow from Zimbabwe to Mozambique, presenting opportunities for shared benefits.
Already, discussions are pointing to joint infrastructure development of the basin where assets belong to the two countries.
In an interview on the sidelines of the BUPUSA Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis, Strategic Action Plan workshop in Nyanga recently, international water law specialist, Mr Daniel Malzbender said Zimbabwe and Mozambique have jointly developed management plans and agreed on the rules of water allocation, managing water pollution and problems in the tri-basin.
“This is high level cooperation that we do not see often. This will not only unlock investment for infrastructure development, irrigation, flood control and management, but will also address some of environmental concerns in the basins. The development will ultimately improve the livelihoods for the population within the basins,” he said.
Mr Malzbender said the interventions require considerable sums of money that can only be unlocked from global and continental finance institutions like the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
“They have clear rules that investment finance can only be unlocked if you can demonstrate jointly that the countries have agreed on these investments and there is no objection from one of them. Shared management and joint planning is a key component to unlocking investments within the basins.
“Zimbabwe and Mozambique have a long standing tradition of cooperation which has now manifested in the agreements that they have signed recently, including the establishment of the BUPUSA Commission. Already, a Strategic Action Plan (SAP) is being developed to identify priority interventions and investments for the basin.
“The SAP will be used to mobilise resources for water development. The Plan will be endorsed and signed by the responsible ministers from the two countries. There is a high level political commitment and that is crucial in convincing the international investors that there is a common understanding of the concerns in the basins and common vision on agreed set of interventions,” said Mr Malzbender.
In line with the SADC Protocol on Water Course systems, the two countries came together and agreed on how they will manage the three river basins. They have signed a number of cooperation agreements.
They have also agreed to establish BUPUSA Watercourse Commission — which is responsible for the management of the basins.
BUPUSA Commission interim executive secretary, Mr Elisha Madamombe said there is need for joint infrastructure development by the two countries to counter the challenges in the basins which are dominated by cyclical floods and droughts to improve water security, climate change resilience and sustainable livelihoods.
Mr Madamombe said the project supports three components — management of floods and droughts warning and mitigation; conserving and restoring ecosystems for sustainable livelihoods and basin planning.
He said extreme weather events also have a huge impact within the tri-basin as evidenced by Cyclone Idai which led to loss of lives and destruction of assets, infrastructure and livelihoods in the two countries.
This also exposed the insufficiency of the early warning systems and lack of preparedness within the three basins.
“The frequency and magnitude of floods and droughts are being exacerbated by climate change. Other key issues include poverty in the basins, we have a lot of water resources which are not fully developed and we need to develop these water resources by putting up dams, drilling boreholes and setting up irrigation schemes to uplift the lives of communities within the basins,” he said.
Mr Madamombe said under tri-basin planning, the project is developing the Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis and Strategic Action Plan and the National Action Plan which are crucial in luring investments.
“Once we have these in place, the next stage will be the basis for the resources mobilisation to address some priority issues. Resources can only be mobilised once we have a Strategic Action Plan in place, which is what is required by most financers,” he said.
Global Water Partnership specialist, Dr Loreen Katiyo said their intervention seeks to reduce the vulnerability of communities in the tri-basin to floods by providing an effective flood risk assessment, an inclusive communication strategy and action plans, as well as strengthening early warning capabilities for the two countries.
“The intervention will strengthen local capacities in flood monitoring, early warning and flood risk management. This will ultimately contribute to a reduction of deaths and loss of goods as a consequence of extreme events such as floods and droughts. We have had cyclones that killed a lot of people and destroyed infrastructure and livelihoods, leading to economic losses,” said Dr Katiyo.
“We are trying to bring infrastructure in terms of more dams and installing water monitoring devices — gauging stations — in our rivers so that when the water levels get to a certain threshold, the responsible institutions in the two countries can transmit warnings.
“We will train communities on how to respond to those warnings. The project also has a research component on how the basins function, how much water they contain and how it can be developed, the size of dams and hectarage that can be supported through irrigation,” she said.
