On the occasion of the Wilson Center's 50th anniversary, its Environmental Change and Security Program and nine co-sponsoring programs convened experts on November 28 from government, the NGO sector, and academia for a comprehensive look at the first year of the U.S. Government Global Water Strategy and new research and practice on water, peace, and conflict.
This series is part of the training sessions created by the partners of the Big Data Analytics and Transboundary Water Collaboration for Southern Africa. These partners include: USAID's Sustainable Water Partnership, the South African Department of Science and Innovation, the Groundwater Management Institute of the Southern African Development Community, the Water Research Commission of South Africa, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and IBM Research-Africa.
The Sustainable Water Partnership held this webinar on August 15, 2019 to learn about the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) efforts to better understand and manage transboundary water sources.
Presenters
According to the United Nations (UN), transboundary waters—the aquifers and lake and river basins shared by two or more countries—account for an estimated 60 percent of global freshwater flow and are home to more than 40 percent of the world’s population. Depleted and degraded transboundary water supplies have the potential to cause social unrest and spark conflict among countries.
The world’s 286 transboundary river basins support the socioeconomic well-being of more than 40 percent of its population, as well as the ecosystems on which they depend. The use of shared water resources by one country will, in most cases, impact other countries sharing the same system. Coordination among countries in the development of transboundary basins can reap greater mutual benefits than would otherwise be available to countries pursuing individual development.
In the last decades, the awareness on the reasons why gender should be particularly mainstreamed in the water realm rapidly grew. Investing in gender mainstreaming in water programs is fundamental and now well justified, because it represents a step forward towards the realization of the SDGs and of the 2030 agenda. This is particularly true and even more challenging in the case of transboundary water bodies, which require cooperation and collaboration among the various authorities in charge of waters across the national borders, based on mutual trust and on transparency.
Southern Africa has significant biodiversity and natural resources, as well as a robust legal framework for natural resource management across borders. However, most countries in the region are water scarce or water stressed. National policies lack harmonization across countries and between sectors, and poor and vulnerable populations lack enough benefits and incentives for sustainable resource management.
This document is part of a series of studies produced by the African and Latin American Resilience to Climate Change (ARCC) project that addresses adaptation to climate change in West Africa. Within the ARCC West Africa studies, this document falls in the subseries Climate Change and Water Resources in West Africa. ARCC undertook the West Africa water studies to increase understanding of the potential impacts of climate change on water resources in West Africa and identify means to support adaptation to these changes.
Global Waters Radio recently spoke with water expert and engineer Eric Viala, who shares examples from Africa’s Sahel region to Cambodia about the powerful ways that strengthened water security contributes to environmental sustainability and improves communities’ resilience in the face of natural disasters.
Rising temperatures and an increase in extreme weather events in East Africa are impacting community livelihoods, the regional economy, and access to improved water and sanitation. Against this backdrop, USAID launched Planning for Resilience in East Africa through Policy, Adaptation, Research and Economic Development (PREPARED) in 2012, to help build the region’s capacity to plan and adapt to the impacts of a changing climate.
