Southern African water conflicts: Are they inevitable or preventable?

Abstract

VIEWPOINT - SHARED WATERCOURSES The Water Wheel January/February 2003 The role of water in virtually all of the water-related disputes or conflicts that have occurred in southern Africa has been secondary to considerations of territorial sovereignty. In most cases, these disputes have been driven by perceptions that the territorial integrity or sovereignty of one country is compromised or threatened by the claims of a neighbouring territory. Many of the international boundaries in southern Africa are aligned with rivers and water courses; the locations of these boundaries are the legacies of surveys and treaties conducted by earlier colonial powers. However, because rivers are dynamic systems that frequently change their courses in response to flood events, we can anticipate future disputes over the precise locations of international boundaries when rivers change their shape and configuration. We can also anticipate that almost all future disputes or conflicts involving water, or concerned with some aspect of water, will tend to be local in scale.

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