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Ministers responsible for Water Affairs from the Republics of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe will on 14 March 2024 meet for a historic meeting in Musina, South Africa to recommit their support to deepening transboundary cooperation in the Limpopo River Basin.
During the meeting, the Ministers will sign the Amendment to the LIMCOM Agreement, which will formalize 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.
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.
At the meeting, the 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).”
The project which is being implemented in partnership with the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), with support from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through the Global Environment Facility International Waters program (GEF-IW), aims 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.
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.
The LIMCOM Ministers meeting will be preceded by the meeting of the Legal and Technical Task Teams on 12 March 2024 and a Commissioners Meeting on 13 March 2024.
LIMCOM
The Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM) was established through the LIMCOM Agreement signed in November 2003 by the four Member States — Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe — in Maputo, Mozambique. 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.” LIMCOM is headquartered in Maputo.
The Limpopo River Basin
The Limpopo River Basin (LRB) is one of the major river basins in southern Africa, and it is shared by four countries namely Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The catchment area of the LRB is estimated at 412,000 km² and the basin has a population of over 18 million people. The river flows north from South Africa, where it creates the border between South Africa and Botswana and then the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, before crossing into Mozambique and draining into the Indian Ocean. The basin supports diverse socio-economic activities in the four Riparian States including agro-industry, large-scale irrigation, rain-fed subsistence agriculture, mining, and eco-tourism, and hosts some of the world’s foremost protected areas and biodiversity hotspots.
