Rationale
The focus of the transboundary water management so far has been in promoting transboundary/regional cooperation through supporting Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) planning at basin level and facilitating regional dialogues. To consolidate the achievements to date of those interventions, focus must now shift to facilitating investment in transboundary and regional programmes. The activities under this component build on the relevant interventions under the AMCOW Work Programme; the ANBO project on “Strengthening of Institutions for Transboundary Waters in Africa (SITWA)”; and the work of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and River and Lake Basin Organisations (R/LBOs) to strengthen institutional capacities for IWRM planning.
Activities
- Promote and facilitate multifunctional “green” basin development centred on natural and built infrastructure to provide a continuum of water storage solutions, thereby increasing Africa’s water storage capacity and enhancing disaster risk management capabilities.
- Establish a framework for pan-African Water Governance Systems and Management Structures.
- Standardise regulatory frameworks for agricultural water management across Africa.
- Support Member States to develop and adopt legal, policy and institutional frameworks for the collection and treatment of wastewater to a minimum water quality standard before discharge into transboundary water courses and aquifers.
- Support for Member States in metering of agricultural water extraction as a first step to making improvements in water use productivity and efficiency to guarantee climate resilient supplies.
- Support Member States, R/LBOs and RECs to conduct water resources assessments – including assessing the availability of groundwater resources and the impact of climate change on freshwater availability – as well as supporting them to monitor and manage groundwater use;
- Support Member States' efforts to establish and operate representative and reliable networks of hydro-meteorological, river gauging and water quality stations.
- Communities in different geographical and socio-economic settings benefit from both policy and infrastructure solutions for reducing vulnerability to the impacts of droughts and floods.
- Inclusive dialogue for enhancing coordination mechanisms and fostering synergies conducive for both effective transboundary Water Resources Management; and improvements in Water Governance in Africa
- Improved monitoring and assessment of the state of the quantity and quality of the water resources in Africa
Contribution to Programme Outcomes
- Communities in different geographical and socio-economic settings benefit from both policy and infrastructure solutions for reducing vulnerability to the impacts of droughts and floods.
- Inclusive dialogue for enhancing coordination mechanisms and fostering synergies conducive for both effective transboundary Water Resources Management; and improvements in Water Governance in Africa
- Improved monitoring and assessment of the state of the quantity and quality of the water resources in Africa
- The unique sub-regional dynamics and contexts internalised into the political, social, economic and administrative systems for transboundary water resources management and development at all levels.