Transboundary Water Resources Governance in the Songwe River Basin, Malawi and Tanzania: Conventional Management Techniques, Local Perceptions, and Developmental Needs

Msilimba, Golden; Jimu, Ignasio Malizani; Swatuk, Larry A.

doi:10.5771/9783845212890-179

Cited by 2 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…These provisions, as they stand today, confer upon each riparian state the rights of access to the river within its respective territory. The persistent meandering of the Songwe River created problems for both countries not only by "tampering" with the juridical boundary, but also creating socio-economic woes for basin inhabitants on both sides of the river (Msilimba et al, 2009). A common interpretation of substantive rules by the riparian states, therefore, exists influenced by common needs that include, primarily, the pursuit of a fixed juridical boundary between the two states and hence the need to train the river to stop it from meandering.…”

Section: The Songwe Decision Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boundaries of benefit sharing: interpretation and application of substantive rules in the Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa sub-basin of the Zambezi Watercourse

Fatch¹,

Bolding

Swatuk

2022

Int Environ Agreements

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The primacy of state sovereignty in transboundary water resources management raises questions regarding how riparian states determine "who gets what, where, and why" in a shared watercourse. To facilitate peaceful coexistence, substantive rules-"equitable and reasonable utilisation (ERU)" and "the duty to prevent the causing of significant harm"define rights and responsibilities of riparian states in the utilisation of shared watercourses. The duty of riparian states to cooperate, as a principle of international law, plays an important part in realising these substantive rules. This article critically reflects on the principles underlying transboundary water management by focusing on the interpretation and application of substantive rules in the Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa sub-basin of the Zambezi River Basin in Southern Africa. The case study demonstrates how interpretation and application of international water law are generally in line with customary practices, but are subject to highly localised decision contexts which challenge Southern African Development Community (SADC) attempts to establish a firm legal foundation upon which to guide access, use and management across the region's shared river basins.

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Section: The Songwe Decision Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Boundaries of benefit sharing: interpretation and application of substantive rules in the Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa sub-basin of the Zambezi Watercourse

Fatch¹,

Bolding

Swatuk

2022

Int Environ Agreements

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“…Funder et al show that 74% of conflictful events are water infrastructure‐centered (of which 45% relate specifically to boreholes), and 82% of these events occur in the dry season (so are mainly about quantity) . This corroborates research conducted in other parts of sub‐Saharan Africa which shows that, in terms of extreme events, while both drought and flood create serious tensions within and between states, drought leads most often to conflict whereas flood often leads toward cooperation …”

Section: What Is Missing From This Picture?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…174 This corroborates research conducted in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa which shows that, in terms of extreme events, while both drought and flood create serious tensions within and between states, drought leads most often to conflict whereas flood often leads toward cooperation. 201,202 While highly localized rural water conflicts are generally resolved due to a combination of mutual need and shared vulnerability, as the geographic scale and variety of stakeholders increases, conflicts become more deeply entrenched and tangled up with broader social issues of power and politics. [203][204][205] Upstream-downstream conflicts over, inter alia, access, quantity, and quality involving smallholder farmers, large-scale commercial agriculture, hydropower generation for cities, parks and protected areas, and mining companies are common in virtually every SADC state river basin.…”

Section: What Is Missing From This Picture?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Water conflict and cooperation in Southern Africa

Swatuk

2015

WIREs Water

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The water resources of southern Africa have featured centrally in the global literature on water conflict and cooperation. This scholarship has appeared in two waves: (1) the post-Cold War focus on resource scarcities and the possibility of 'water wars' and (2) the mid-2000s rise of fears surrounding the impact of a changing climate on water resource regimes. The first wave, in the region, ironically resulted in a significant body of scholarship demonstrating the predominance of cooperation rather than conflict. The second wave has served primarily as a spur to better governance and management, and to better integration across the policy making landscape. Running as something of a countercurrent to these dominant trends, is critical scholarship that focuses primarily on water rights and regards conflict as a necessary means to more equitable resource access ends. A key challenge for scholars of water conflict and cooperation across the region is, therefore, to reconcile both theoretically and practically the macro studies of largely transboundary water politics with the micro studies of social struggles for water in urban and rural settings. The article concludes that for a third wave of studies to add value to questions of regional water security, scholars must (1) recognize the simultaneous presence of conflict and cooperation, (2) acknowledge that not all conflict is bad, neither is all cooperation good, (3) approach the analysis more systematically through hard data gathering, and (4) read beyond their disciplines in order to more fully understand the social dynamics of the region.

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Transboundary Water Resources Governance in the Songwe River Basin, Malawi and Tanzania: Conventional Management Techniques, Local Perceptions, and Developmental Needs

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Boundaries of benefit sharing: interpretation and application of substantive rules in the Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa sub-basin of the Zambezi Watercourse

Boundaries of benefit sharing: interpretation and application of substantive rules in the Lake Malawi/Niassa/Nyasa sub-basin of the Zambezi Watercourse

Water conflict and cooperation in Southern Africa

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