Free Flow

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ater

ooperation

, S

ustainability

and

overty

radication

Botswana, the Department of Waste Management and Pollution

Control is already using the guidelines throughout the country and

pushing for them to be codified in laws such as the Environmental

Impact Assessment Act, Tourism Licensing Act, Land Board Act and

Buildings Control Act.

The Okavango River Basin is shared by two other countries:

Namibia and Angola. To protect the Okavango Delta, the part of the

basin which lies in Botswana, the countries upstream need to manage

the risk of pollution by undertaking similar cooperative exercises and

developing guidelines for their particular circumstances. In order to

scale up lessons learned in the Okavango Delta across the basin, GWP

Botswana is working through regional networks, such as the Southern

Africa Regional Environmental Programme (SAREP), to share experi-

ences of how the guidelines for the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site work

in practice. The guidelines are being used in SAREP projects in the

Okavango River Basin and in work to improve transboundary coop-

eration on water in Southern Africa.

Because those with a stake in the well-being of the Okavango

Delta worked cooperatively to develop the guidelines, they are likely

to find the guidelines useful, to put them into practice and even

perhaps to encourage others to do so. Where there has been poten-

tial for conflict and breakdown of communication, the approach

taken by GWP Botswana has instead encouraged understanding and

collaboration. Barriers dissolved as people were given the space and

time to listen, and be listened to.

Many of the problems affecting wetlands stem from the failure of

users to cooperate. In the Okavango Delta Ramsar Site, what was

needed to prevent pollution was to bring water users together to

reach a common understanding of the problems, and

discuss possible solutions and ways forward. Changing

the way water is managed takes time and requires

commitment and contributions from many parties.

Celebrating water cooperation is therefore an important

manifestation of what partnerships can do at all levels

from the local to the global.

Guidelines for managing liquid waste and hazardous substances help keep the Okavango Delta ecosystem safe from pollution

Image: mostphotos.com/leksele

Image: mostphotos.com/ericschmiedl

Hippos grazing near the Okavango Delta