Maravi

Zambia develops water resources management and efficiency plan

Zambia develops water resources management and efficiency plan
By Joan Chirwa and Nchima Nchito
Thursday July 17, 2008 [04:00]

ZAMBIA has become the first country in southern Africa to produce an implementation plan for the Integrated Water Resources Management and Water Efficiency in line with the country’s FNDP and Vision 2030.

The development of the Integrated Water Resources Management and Water Efficiency (IWRM/WE) plan followed an agreement by Heads of States at the 2002 World Summit on sustainable development in South Africa which tasked countries to prepare national plans on water resource management and efficiency.

This was in acknowledgement of the critical role sustainable water resource management could play in the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which among other targets seeks to halve extreme poverty and hunger as well as ensure access to safe water and sanitation by 2015.

Development experts have warned that Zambia and several other countries in the region need to step up efforts or fail to attain the MDG targets, with only seven years away from the achievement date.

During the launch of the IWRM/WE plan in Lusaka yesterday, energy and water development minister Kenneth Konga said the government’s challenge was the implementation of the document and not its production.

“Our challenge now as the government is to implement this plan and not the process of making it,” Konga said. “This has to be our aim now that we know that Zambia is the first country to come up with this document.”

The IWRM/WE plan, which has been developed with support from the Partnership for Africa’s Water Development (PAWD) project under the Ministry of Energy, will provide a framework for implementing all water related programmes in the fifth national development plan (FNDP) and strategy for achieving the MDGs.

And Global Water Partnership (GWP) southern Africa executive secretary Ruth Beukman said it was encouraging that Zambia took up the initiative to develop the IWRM/WE plan earlier than many other countries in the region.

Zambia accounts for 42 per cent of fresh water resources in the Southern African region and is also covered by some of the major river basins such as the Zambezi.

Labels: IRRIGATION, WATER MANAGEMENT

posted by MrK @ 4:11 AM