Stakeholder Participation in Transboundary Water ... - ACWR

1 Stakeholder Participation IN Transboundary Water MANAGEMENT SELECTED CASE STUDIES Anton Earle & Daniel Malzbender (Eds) African Centre for Water Research Cape Town, South Africa Funded by Inwent, Germany February, 2006 Stakeholder Participation in Transboundary Water Management selected case studies Contents Page 1. Introduction 4 Anton Earle 2. Stakeholder Participation In The Transboundary Management Of 10 The Pungwe River Basin Barbara Tapela 3.

2 The Role of Basic Community Organisations in the Management of the 35 Natural Resources of a Transboundary Water Basin The example of the Local Coordination Committees of the Senegal River Development Organisation Mamadou Mactar Sylla 4. Local Action For A Global Challenge - The Case Of The Komati River Basin 52 Enock Dlamini 5. Stakeholder Participation in the Okavango River Basin 66 Shirley Bethune 6. An Overview of Stakeholder Participation Within the Danube Basin: 81 What Current Practice and Future Challenges?

3 Alistair Rieu-Clarke 7. Public Participation under the EU Water Framework Directive 96 Daniel Malzbender 8. Stakeholder Participation in Transboundary Water management: the 111 North American Great Lakes System Joshua Newton 9. Between Rhetoric and Reality A Critical Account of Stakeholder 131 Participation in Decision Making in the Mekong River Basin P l Arne Davidsen This report forms part of the Inwent Capacity Development Programme: Integrated Water Resources Management in Shared River Basin in the SADC Region.

4 Senior programme manager: Thomas Petermann, Department 5 - Environment, Natural Resources and Food, Leipzig-Zschortau, Germany. InWEnt, Lindenstr. 41, D-04519 Rackwitz (Zschortau), Germany The compilation and editing was carried out by Anton Earle and Daniel Malzbender of the African Centre for Water Research (ACWR). The mandate of the ACWR is to promote the cooperative management of shared waters in southern Africa through developing capacity-building and applied research initiatives.

5 The editors would like to thank all those who contributed cases to this volume their generous sharing of experiences gained through work carried out on the topic of Stakeholder Participation has greatly assisted the editors. It is hoped that the net result is a reference tool which can provide input to the development of Stakeholder strategies in Transboundary Water management. Contacts: Third Floor, 47 On Strand, Cape Town Suite 17 Private Bag X1 Vlaeberg 8018 South Africa Tel: +27 (0)83 3792997 Tel: +27 (0)21 424 4821 E-mail: or Contributors.

6 Name Institution Contact Barbara Tapela PLAAS South Africa Mamadou Mactar Sylla OMVS Senegal Enock Dlamini Kobwa Swaziland Shirley Bethune DRFN - Namibia Alistair Rieu-Clarke IWLRI UK Joshua Newton Tufts USA P l Arne Davidsen Uni Bergen Norway Stakeholder Participation in Transboundary Water Management selected case studies Introduction Although Water is essential to human survival it is estimated that roughly a billion people worldwide have insufficient access to clean Water supplies (UNESCO-WWAP, 2003).

7 Twenty seven nations are classified as Water scarce and a further 16 as Water stressed (Jansky & Uitto, 2005). This situation, coupled with the fact that many surface and groundwater systems are shared between two or more states has led the United Nations to identify rising Water demand as one of the four major factors that will threaten human and ecological health over the coming generation (UNESCO-WWAP, 2003). Governments have recognised the importance of managing and developing Water resources in a sustainable way ensuring the long term ability of Water resources to be maintained at sufficient levels of quality and quantity.

8 The efficient and environmentally sustainable management of Water implies a commitment by Water users to use available supplies in ways which avoid waste maximising beneficial use. Households, farmers and industrialists have to implement Water conservation measures aiming to gain the maximum benefit from every drop consumed. However countered with this need to improve efficiency is the reality that many people in the developing world are not using enough Water due to a lack of access.

9 These include the roughly 6,000 people a day who die from Water -borne diseases as well as the rural populations relying on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods (UNESCO-WWAP, 2003). When developing Water management strategies it is not enough to only consider economic efficiency and environmental sustainability the third dimension of equity needs to be included. Water needs to be used as a vehicle for improving people s livelihood stability supplying Water for domestic use as well as small-scale agricultural and other productive activities.

10 For Water management to effectively integrate the goals of efficiency, sustainability and equity a broad cross section of stakeholders need to participate. Whether on the local scale of a small catchment or on the international Transboundary scale, Water users and other interested parties need to be involved to varying degrees in the planning, development, implementation and monitoring of Water management activities. The success of cooperative management strategies incorporating inputs from a broad range of sectors & stakeholders to a large degree hinges on providing the public effective means of participating in Water -management decisions directly affecting them.