The 7th SADC Multi-stakeholder Water Dialogue recently was held in Windhoek, Namibia from 29-30 Sepetmber
Theo Diergaarat, Namibia’s deputy minister for agriculture, water and forestry, called the SADC roadmap and strategy for the region a major milestone which will accelerate economic growth in the region, and also diversify and broaden the manufacturing and industrial bases.
The stakeholder dialogue is a joint organisational collaboration between the SADC Secretariat and the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWP-SA), operating under the theme of ‘Watering development in SADC: The central role of water in driving industrialisation’.
“Water cuts across all sectors of our economy and is not a one-man business as it requires all sectors to work together in a nexus approach. We acknowledge the efforts made by GWP-SA together with the SADC Secretariat’s water division who singled out Namibia to be the host for the water dialogue,” Diergaarat said.
Assistance for the conference has also been received from the Desert Research Foundation of Namibia, which acted as the secretariat for Namibia Water Partnership, and support staff from the Namibian Agriculture Ministry, according to Diergaarat.
Diergaarat added that Namibia, like most African water-scarce countries, is looking to take advantage of cooperation in international shared water resources in order to maximise the benefits for industrial development.
The multi-stakeholder water dialogue is a bi-annual activity which originated through the Integrated Water Resources Management awareness creation programme.
Wallace Mawire
