Infrastructure for Water Resource Management in Southern Africa

Water resources infrastructure ranges from educational and research infrastructure, storage works (surface and underground), hydrological and meteorological stations, irrigation systems, to water infrastructure for eco-tourism. This water resources infrastructure serves the mining, agricultural, urban and rural water needs, the environment, amongst a host of other needs and demands. Water resources infrastructure is a critical component in the provision of sustainable water resource management and services, for example, for mitigating impacts of climate change and variability, mitigating the variability of the water resource distribution in space and time, climate proofing, energy and food security and for data collection for information and improving the knowledge base. The purpose of this article is to document the status of water infrastructure development in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and showcase the efforts and strides that the SADC region has made and taken in achieving a conducive enabling environment for water infrastructure development to facilitate better water resource management. The article also highlights the challenges faced and the lessons learnt to date pursuant to the provision of water resource infrastructure in the SADC Region. The opinions and conclusions drawn in the article are those of the author.