Member States meet to validate the Groundwater Strategy for the Limpopo River Basin

Summary

LIMCOM Member States – Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe – met in Johannesburg, South Africa on 29 April 2024 to validate the Groundwater Strategy for the Limpopo River Basin (LRB).

LIMCOM Member States – Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe – met in Johannesburg, South Africa on 29 April 2024 to validate the Groundwater Strategy for the Limpopo River Basin (LRB).

The Groundwater Strategy for the LRB aims to promote joint groundwater resources development and management, as well as harmonize current and planned groundwater initiatives with national plans of the LRB Member States.

In developing the strategy, the four Riparian States that share the Limpopo River established the LIMCOM Groundwater Committee (LGC) in 2018 to lead the formulation process of the strategy in cooperation with the SADC Groundwater Management Institute (SADC-GMI) and OneWorld Sustainable Investments.

Once approved, the strategy will allow LIMCOM countries to harness their groundwater fully, collectively and sustainably. In the Limpopo basin and the rest of the SADC region. Groundwater is a critical resource, due to the limited availability and variable quality of surface water resources. Groundwater is a major source of drinking water and also for a range of economic uses and environmental services.

Development of the Groundwater Strategy for the LRB was first commissioned by the World Bank Cooperation in International Waters in Africa CIWA) program. Support for the strategy is continuing to further capacitate the LGC under the “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin (LIMCOM-UNDP/GEF project)”.

LIMCOM is implementing the LIMCOM-UNDP/GEF project in partnership with the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), with support from the United Nations Development Programme UNDP), through funding from the Global Environment Facility International Waters program (GEF-IW).

The project 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.