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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau

Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Anxious Jongwe Masuka will next week meet with his counterparts from Botswana, Mozambique and South Africa to discuss a raft of issues and to recommit their support to deepening transboundary cooperation in the Limpopo River Basin.

The meeting will be held on March 14 and is being coordinated by the Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM).

The organisation was established through the LIMCOM Agreement signed in November 2003 by the four Member States- Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe in Maputo.

The main objective of LIMCOM is to advise and provide recommendations on the uses of the Limpopo, its tributaries and its waters for purposes and measures of protection, preservation and management of the Limpopo.

In a statement on Friday, LIMCOM said, during the meeting, the Ministers will sign an amendment to the LIMCOM Agreement.

“This will formalise the establishment of the Council of Ministers as the LIMCOM’s main policy and decision making body on transboundary water resources development and management issues in the Limpopo River Basin,” said the LIMCOM in the statement.

“Article 4 of the LIMCOM Agreement signed in November 2003 did not initially include the Council of Ministers. Therefore, the formalization of the Council of Ministers as the main policy body will improve the governance structure of LIMCOM and its Secretariat.

“Furthermore, it will foster closer cooperation for judicious, sustainable and coordinated management, protection and utilization of shared watercourses in line with the 2000 Revised SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses.”

The organisation said at the same gathering, the four ministers will also officially launch the current flagship project for LIMCOM titled “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin (UNDP-GEF Limpopo project)”.

This project is being implemented in partnership with the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

It is expected, through the Global Environment Facility International Waters program (GEF-IW) to uplift the living standards of the basin’s population and conserve the basin’s resources and ecosystem services, through several interventions to be executed at the community level.

LIMCOM said one of the key highlights of the project is the formulation of the Limpopo Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), which will see Member States agree on a set of transboundary priorities for the basin to guide both transboundary and national investments in the future, through a Strategic Action Plan (SAP).

“Another important activity for the Ministers will be the approval of various LIMCOM Governance and Policy documents that provide the necessary guidance to corporate operational governance of the LIMCOM Secretariat with regard to administration and financial management, as well as human resources policy management and procurement and assets management,” it said.

As part of the Musina Programme, the four Cabinet Ministers’ engagement will be preceded by the meeting of the Legal and Technical Task Teams on 12 March and a Commissioners’ Meeting the following day.

The Limpopo River Basin (LRB) is one of the major river basins in southern Africa, and is shared by four countries; Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Its catchment area is estimated at 412,000 km² and the basin has a population of over 18 million people.

The Limpopo River flows north from South Africa, where it creates a border between South Africa and Botswana, then another border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, before crossing into Mozambique and draining into the Indian Ocean.

In addition, the basin supports diverse socio-economic activities in the four countries including agro-industry, large-scale irrigation, rain-fed subsistence agriculture, mining, eco-tourism, and hosts some of the world’s foremost protected areas and biodiversity hotspots.