Water Resources Management and Development minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo says there is need to establish international laws regulating the distribution and use of trans-boundary water resources to ensure sustainable development.
Speaking during the roundtable discussion on Trans-boundary Water Resources Management at the Sixth World Water Forum in Marseille, France, last week, Nkomo said water was a high value resource, central to the achievement of sustainable development and its usage needed to be guided by law.
“While integrated trans-boundary water management is increasingly gaining interest, there is to this day still no legally binding international law regulating the distribution and use of these water resources. It is our wish as Zimbabwe and the African continent at large to see the world move to a situation where we develop international legislation to facilitate the equitable management of trans-boundary water resources,” he said.
Nkomo said attention in Africa was already shifting to shared water courses for long-term water supply largely due to climate change.
“In trans-boundary waters lies an opportunity for the development of bi or multilateral hydropower, irrigation and dam construction projects. Economic growth is thus not realised by one country, but by the region as a whole,” he said. The event was attended by 15 International organisations.
