Mozambique and Zimbabwe are boldly tackling escalating social, economic, and environmental challenges in the Buzi, Pungwe, and Save River Basins. In 2023, the two governments launched the Buzi, Pungwe, and Save Watercourses Commission (BUPUSACOM) under cooperation agreements aligned with the SADC Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses of 2000, to spearhead a united response to the challenges that have been intensified by climate change and resource mismanagement.
Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), Strategic Action Program (SAP), and National Action Plans (NAPs) have since been developed under the Management of Competing Water Uses and Associated Ecosystems in Pungwe, Buzi, and Save Basins (GEF-BUPUSA) project, being funded through a USD 6 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implemented in the basins by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).The Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA) is the regional executing partner supporting the two governments. The highly consultative TDA process identified the five key transboundary environmental problems adversely affecting aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, livelihoods, and socioeconomic conditions to be:
- reduced availability of water,
- deterioration of water quality,
- land degradation,
- changes in flow regime, and
- increase iextreme climate events
Residents of Buzi District, in Sofala province, Mozambique, wait on rooftops for rescue teams after Cyclone Idai made landfall in March 2019. Excessive flooding is a common occurrence in the BUPUSA Basins. Photo Credit: Instituto Nacional de Gestão de Calamidades, (INGC)
The TDA also pinpoints the underlying drivers contributing to these environmental problems, i.e., population dynamics, land use change, poverty, climate change, and insufficient governance capacities and transboundary coordination.
Strategic Action Program (SAP) for the BUPUSA tri-basin
“The TDA-SAP development process helped us identify transboundary water resources challenges and the potential preventive and remedial actions in the three basins,” said Engineer Macias Macie, National Director of Water Resource Management in Mozambique’s Ministry of Water.
Engineer Macias Macie, National Director of Water Resource Management in Mozambique’s Ministry of Water. Photo Credit: GEF- BUPUSA Project
His Zimbabwean counterpart, Engineer Gilbert Mawere, echoed: “The SAP provides a basin-wide framework for implementing a prioritized set of national and joint transboundary actions and investments to address jointly agreed priority environmental concerns in the Buzi, Pungwe, and Save River Basins”.
Engineer Gilbert Mawere gives an overview of the SAP. Photo Credit: GWPSA, SADC
Resource Mobilisation
National Action Plans (NAPS) complement the 10-year SAP, outlining the interventions needed to enhance Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) at national levels.
“The BUPUSA SAP will be endorsed by the ministers of water from the riparian states and its implementation will require ongoing and combined resource mobilisation efforts of multiple role players, including Member States, regional organisations like the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretariat, and others,” said Mr. Elisha Madamombe, GEF-BUPUSA Regional Project Coordinator and BUPUSACOM Interim Executive Secretary. 
Mr Elisha Madamombe, BUPUSACOM Interim Executive Secretary and IUCN-GEF BUPUSA Regional Project Coordinator. Photo Credit: GEF- BUPUSA Project
Key to the success of the resource mobilisation drive is the development of resource mobilisation capacity for both the Commission and its Member States. The Commission has identified three major types of funding: grants, loans and national budget allocations. The mobilised resources are expected to support a wide range of activities including institutional strengthening, knowledge management, technical assistance, capacity development, infrastructure development, and socioeconomic development programmes.
The roadmap towards the establishment of the BUPUSA Tri-basin Commission has so far been implemented with financial support from various sources including the Department for International Development (DFID), Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (Germany) (BMZ) the Deutsche Gesellschaft für International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), GEF, GWPSA, IUCN, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Resilient Waters Program.
“Through the Continental Africa Water Investment Programme, GWPSA commits to join other partners in support of the commission’s resource mobilization efforts and development of the BUPUSA Water Investment Programme”, said Mr. Alex Simalabwi, Executive Secretary – of GWPSA.