Water – an engine for growth, development and industrialisation

Lazarus Sauti

Water, a finite and irreplaceable resource, notes the United Nations, is critical for sustainable development, including environmental integrity and the alleviation of poverty and hunger, and is indispensable for human health and well-being.

In southern Africa, like most regions of the continent, water drives agriculture and mining: pillars or engines for growth, development and industrialisation.

Because of this and other reasons, Namibian Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, John Mutorwa, believes water is a central pillar to any development.

This, according to him, means all productions processes in any country require it for social and economic transformation.

As per Mutorwa’s voice, “Water is an engine for development, and it goes to follow also that a nation which is not water-secure and without having proper sanitation facilities will not be able to achieve the desired and high sustained level of economic development.”

Seeing that countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) are geared to leverage their resources, industrialise and develop their economies, political and business leaders should prioritise access to water as it is a catalyst to economic expansion.

“Only renewable if well managed, water is at the core of sustainable development and is critical for socio-economic development; a critical ingredient in any developmental matrix of a nation,” said Matthew Chiramba, a water and sanitation development practitioner.

“If you do not have adequate water, forget about industrialisation, as power generation, refineries, construction, farming and mining all require large volumes of treated water in their production processes,” he added.

Melody Makumbe, an agriculture expert, says there is also a strong link between water, energy and agriculture.

“Harnessing the region water is tonic to industrialisation as water drives agriculture and energy. In fact, there is a strong link between water, energy and agriculture: components required in the region’s industrialisation agenda,” she said.

Dr Agathe Maupin, a Senior Researcher at South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA), thus, says leaders in southern Africa should recognise this inextricable linkage.

“It is undeniable that water and energy resources share a strong interdependence,” he said, adding that beyond the generation of electricity via hydropower, for instance, nergy needs water to cool power plants or to produce biofuel, whereas water needs energy to be treated and distributed.

Phera Ramoeli, Senior Water Programme Officer at the SADC Secretariat, says managed efficiently and equitably, water can play a key enabling role in strengthening sectors such as agriculture, energy and mining.

He therefore urged SADC leaders to manage the region’s transboundary resources effectively to meet domestic, industrial and agricultural needs.

Ramoeli added that political and business leaders, together with key stakeholders in water management within the region, need to plan and ensure that water does not become a constraint both in quality and quantity in the quest to achieve the aspirations of the SADC Industrialisation Strategy and Roadmap 2015 – 2063.

“More than 70 percent of the region’s fresh water resources are shared between two or more SADC countries; accordingly, governments and departments responsible for water management must ensure that these resources are developed, managed and used in a sustainable way to support the industrialisation agenda,” he said.

In SADC, Ramoeli notes, water is available in relative abundance, but there are spatial and temporal variations.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for example, has more water than the rest of the SADC member-states, with estimated volumes of around 43 000 cubic metres per second out of the Congo River into the Atlantic Ocean on average.

In other areas, he continues, such as in some parts of Namibia, we have only 50mm of rainfall in a good year.

“This underlines the need for SADC to develop infrastructure to harness water where it exists in relative abundance and transfer it to where it is needed through inter- and intra-basin transfer schemes,” Ramoeli added.

Sharing the same sentiments, Emmerson Mnangagwa, Vice President of Zimbabwe, says SADC governments should be committed to the development of infrastructure which is vital to adequate water provision, investment, economic growth and industrialisation.

“Limited water infrastructure inhibits the investment of productive capital, raises production costs, leads to the loss of a lot of time of production time due to water shortages and results in high prices of finished goods. This calls for governments in the region to be committed to the development of water infrastructure,” he said.

VP Mnangagwa also urged SADC states to work together for the good of the region, a fact supported by Ramoeli.

“SADC member-states should join hands and support projects that ensure effective management of water resources. One example they should emulate is the Kunene water supply project, which does more than just supply water to Namibia’s dry northern areas and southern Angola’s Kunene region. It is also a good example of a collaborative project between two member-states,” Ramoeli said.

The Chairperson of SADC Water Resources Technical Committee, Dr. Obolokile Obakeng, concurs.

“The region’s water resources are critical for increasing food security through better management of rain-fed and irrigated agriculture, aquaculture, and livestock production, and improving access and availability of cheap energy through hydropower.

“Therefore, water scarcity in the region should not be left in the hands of affected countries or line ministries, but all member-states should work towards the regional goal of attaining an integrated regional economy,” he said.

Obakeng, who is also the Director of Water Affairs in Botswana, also said southern Africa must come up with water management strategy that will support the region’s objectives of poverty reduction, food security, energy security and industrial development, as well as being an instrument to promote peace and cooperation amongst the partners.

“To harness water and use it as an engine for growth, development and industrialisation, engineers, researchers, policymakers, industry and civil society groups in the region must come up with water management strategy that will support the region’s development agenda; the strategy should allow for the creation of perfect partnerships between governments, departments as well as companies which go beyond corporate social responsibility,” he said.

On the other hand, Dr Maupin strongly feels that scientific and industrial networks are key if the region is to harness water, leverage resources and effectively transform economies.

“Bringing scientific and industrial networks to collaborate is essential,” she said, adding that one suggestion could be to better integrate the respective targets of water and energy sectors, as well as budget allocation regarding infrastructure building and maintenance.

Dr Maupin also said there is a clear need to improve – if not to reconstruct – perception, use and management patterns of water resources if the region is to improve its economy and lift citizens out of poverty.