Objectives

The overall objective of this Protocol is to foster closer cooperation for judicious, sustainable and coordinated management, protection and utilisation of shared watercourses and advance the Southern African Development Community agenda of regional integration and poverty alleviation. In order to achieve this objective, this Protocol seeks to:

1. promote and facilitate the establishment of shared watercourse agreements and Shared Watercourse Institutions for the management of shared watercourses;
2. advance the sustainable, equitable and reasonable utilisation of the shared watercourses;
3. promote a co-ordinated and integrated environmentally sound development and management of shared watercourses;
4. promote the harmonisation and monitoring of legislation and policies for planning, development, conservation, protection of shared watercourses, and allocation of the resources thereof; and
5. promote research and technology development, information exchange, capacity building, and the application of appropriate technologies in shared watercourses management.

Reports:

• Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses of the Southern African Development Community