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News in RSSThe Southern Africa Water Wire provides in-depth coverage of a diverse range of water-related issues in Southern Africa, linking water to economic development, social well-being and environmental protection. Local journalists from across the region explore the challenges, failures and successes of managing this vital resource. The Southern African Water Wire is commissioned by the secretariat of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) with financial support from German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in delegated cooperation with the UK Department for International Development(DFID) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) is implementing the partnership programme.,

A $45-million infrastructure upgrade could give clean drinking water....
Nairobi’s slums are not known for positive community inputs, but in Waruku ....
SADC says World Water Day must be used to highlight the movement of Africa’s rural people....
Johannes Myburgh talks to residents of Maputo suburb Chamanculo enjoying running water....
Officials say illegal connections are hampering efforts to provide water to some 200 000 people ....
Southern African nations are looking to extend the use of reservoirs along the Zambezi.....
Farmers on the banks of the Zambezi are worried their crops will be washed away again.
Despite concerns about the quality of the water in South Africa affecting fresh produce and a supermarket taking products off its shelves, some experts say there is no reason to worry.
Tinus de Jager asks Peter Pike of the South African department of water affairs why it took Orasecom ten years to start their quality survey on the Orange-Senqu river basin
The Orange-Senqu River Commission, ORASECOM, wants to educate children about conserving river systems.
Brian Moonga takes a look at Lusaka's George Water Supply Project
Water Users Association solves bill collection problems, but now where's the water? Lameck Masina investigates.
Saving Water Saves Lives
Share water to benefit everyone, Davison Makanga hears
Community consultation vital for efficient river basin organizations.
Brian Moonga reports that most Zambians don't have access to clean water and sanition, depites the country's vast fresh water resources.
Lameck Mesina reports on access to water challenges in Malawi.

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WEST AFRICA
Water Shortage Threatens Wildlife
By Brahima Ouédraogo
OUAGADOUGOU - The story of a pair of buffalo aggressively prowling the edges of a village in eastern Burkina Faso is a warning sign of severe water stress in the region which threatens humans and wild animals alike.
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MAURITIUS
Thirsty for Ideas to Address Water Woes
By Nasseem Ackbarally
PORT LOUIS - Mauritius plans to privatise its water sector, as rains become rare, and century-old pipes continue to leak almost 50 percent of the water available, added to waste by the population, mismanagement and over-consumption.
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SWAZILAND
Processing Plant Threatens Water in Capital
By Mantoe Phakathi
MBABANE - A multi-million dollar iron-ore reprocessing plant in the northern part of Swaziland, owned by Indian mining company Salgaocar, is threatening the water security of local communities and even the country’s capital city, Mbabane.
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Growing Calls for Water to be Prioritised
By Joshua Kyalimpa
DURBAN, South Africa - Efforts to establish water as an agenda item in its own right in climate change negotiations are gaining momentum in Durban, South Africa. Water experts say doing this will lead to a greater focus on developing policy, and attract more resources into the water sector through adaptation programmes.
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Water: A Victim of Climate Change
By Busani Bafana
DURBAN, South Africa - The Southern Africa Development Community wants water to be tabled as a standalone item on climate change negotiations – describing it as too important to leave on the periphery.
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SOUTH AFRICA
Acid Mine Drainage Water Can Be Put to Use
By Busani Bafana
KRUGERSDORP, South Africa - Toxic water from derelict gold and uranium mines has reportedly destroyed Elize Strydom's dream to be a farmer in her retirement.
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UGANDA
Single Mothers Left Behind in Flooded Swampland
By Andrew Green
KAMPALA - Life in Bwaise – a slum on the outskirts of the capital of Uganda – has never been easy. But increasingly erratic rains over the last three years have brought constant floods to the former swampland. Residents who can afford to are moving out, leaving the poorest – often single mothers and grandmothers – behind.
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CLIMATE CHANGE
A Threat to Food Security in Africa's River Basins
By Busani Bafana
PRETORIA, South Africa - While Africa has successfully avoided conflict over shared water courses, it will need greater diplomacy to keep the peace as new research warns that climate change will have an effect on food productivity.
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World’s Biggest Hydropower Scheme Will Leave Africans in the Dark
By Kristin Palitza
CAPE TOWN - South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo have signed an agreement to build a major hydroelectric power project, which is said to bring electricity to more than half of the continent’s 900 million people. But economic analysts warn that foreign investors will prevent the grid from benefiting the general public.
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MALAWI
Water Promises Light for Isolated Community
By Charles Mpaka
BLANTYRE - In just a few weeks, seven villages that had expected to remain "in the dark forever" will finally have electricity, courtesy of a small hydroelectric power plant on Lichenya River, one of the major rivers on the eastern slopes of Mulanje Mountain in southern Malawi.
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SOUTH AFRICA
Saving Water, Money and Improving Livelihoods
By Busani Bafana
JOHANNESBURG - For many months now, a hosepipe connected to a leaking cistern in Isaac Mooi's outside toilet daily pours an estimated 100 litres of wasted water into the aged sewer system of the Emfuleni Municipality, in Vanderbijlpark, south of Johannesburg.
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DR CONGO
No Water, No Management, No Power
By Anselme Nkinsi
KINSHASA - Frequent power cuts have led to the firing of the board of the Democratic Republic of Congo's national electricity company. But it is not clear if sub-par generation from the Inga hydroelectric power stations supplying the capital Kinshasa is due to poor management or to unusually low water levels in the Congo River.
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Mega Cities Could Trigger Water Shortages and Social Unrest
By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM - The rapid growth of urban population - described as one of the world’s major demographic trends - has triggered an explosion of "mega cities" in Asia, Latin America and Africa, causing a breakdown in basic services, including water supplies and sanitation facilities.
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Too Much Water As Dangerous As Too Little
By Thalif Deen
STOCKHOLM - The international community is running the risk of losing the battle for water and sanitation in many cities around the world.
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MALAWI
Hospitals Struggle Amid Water Shortage
By Charles Mpaka
BLANTYRE - Two battered plastic chairs bar entry to the toilets at the Bangwe Township Clinic in Blantyre. The toilets are not working because there is no running water – yet again. And if patients want to use the facilities they will have to run to the next- door primary school, which has pit latrines.
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Q&A
Water Will Be Lifeblood of Smart Urban Expansion
U.N. Bureau Chief Thalif Deen interviews ANDERS BERNTELL, executive director of the Stockholm International Water Institute
UNITED NATIONS - The world's water map is being significantly redrawn due primarily to the mass migration of people into urban centres, threatening one of life's vital resources.
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NAMIBIA
No Option but to Adapt to a Changing Climate
By Marianne Pretorius
WINDHOEK - Extreme weather conditions predicted because of climate change in Namibia are likely to have a tremendous effect on the 70 percent of the country’s people who live in rural areas and depend heavily on agriculture.
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Water as Basic Human Right Has a Market Price, Says U.N. Chief
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - As the 193-member General Assembly commemorates the first anniversary of its landmark resolution pronouncing water and sanitation to be a basic human right, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon triggered a political controversy last week when he implicitly declared that even human rights have a market price.
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MALAWI
Water Drives Integrated Agriculture on Small Farm
By Charles Mpaka
BLANTYRE - When the original owners of a 3.5 hectare piece of land put it up for sale because it was too waterlogged to farm on, Diana Sitima and her husband, Wilson, jumped to buy it.
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African women in the path of climate change

Stephanie Midgley, head of science, One World Sustainable Investments tells Zeenat Abdool how climate change could drive women’s empowerment.
Click to listen to mp3>>
Okavango’s river basin organisation in good health

OKACOM executive secretary Eben Chonguiça tells Fransiska Thikerete that joint fact-finding has helped Angola, Botswana and Namibia to build a basis of trust so that balanced choices over development in the Okavango River basin can proceed.
Click to listen to mp3>>
Efficient use of water vital for climate change adaptation

Adapting to climate-change induced stress on water in Southern Africa should include more efficient use of water that is available, Themba Gumbo tells Zeenat Abdool.
Click to listen to mp3>>
We Depend on Those Upstream
Alma Balopi interviews SERGIO BENTO SITOE interim secretary, Limpopo River Basin Commission
When it comes to sharing transboundary waters, downstream countries are no one has as much to lose as downstream countries. Mozambique is at the end of no fewer than nine of Southern Africa's 15 shared river basins.
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Transboundary Water Management Working Well For Botswana
Alma Balopi interviews BOGADI MATHANGWANE
project technical coordinator
International Water Office
Botswana Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources
Botswana is experiencing water stress due to a number of factors such as rapidly increasing population, low and variable rainfall, warmer temperatures leading to higher rates of evaporation, and the continuing high cost of exploiting existing water resources.
More >>
Government Has a Responsibility to Provide Water
Busani Bafana interviews NOMATHEMBA NESENI, executive director, Institute of Water and Sanitation Development
Guaranteeing access to water to all can only be achieved when government and communities work together.
More >>
Involving Communities in Managing Water Resources
Davison Makanga interviews ALLOICE KAPONDA
Basin Water Officer, Ruvuma and Southern Coast Region
Tanzania Ministry of Water
The Ruvuma region in Tanzania was a buffer zone for Mozambican soldiers during the liberation war.
More >>

Southern Africa Must Find Resources to Back the Policy
The risks of climate change on food security in Southern Africa
Time to focus on underground pollution
Borehole maintenance challenges in southern Africa

News in RSS
AFRICA MUST BE HEARD ON CLIMATE CHANGE
by Wangari Maathai
While in wealthy countries the looming climate crisis is a matter of concern, in Africa, which has hardly contributed to climate change, it is a matter of life and death, writes Wangari Maathai, the 2004 Nobel Peace Laureate, member of Kenya’s Parliament and the founder of the Green Belt Movement.

SADC Regional Water Sector
SADC Water Division
SADC Water Sector ICP Collaboration Portal
SADC Groundwater Grey Literature Archive
SADC Water Demand Management Programme
SADC Groundwater and Drought Management Project
International Water Management Institute
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Global Water Partnership
UN Water - Africa

Southern Africa River Basin Organisations
Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM)
Limpopo Water Course Commission
Permanent Okavango River Basin Commission (OKACOM)
International Commission for the Congo-Oubangui-Sangha Basin (CICOS)
Lake Tanganyika Authority (LTA)
Pangani Basin Water Board (PBWB)
Nile Basin Initiative (NBI)

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