OKACOM representatives joined water specialists and officials from the SADC region in Maseru, Lesotho last week at the annual meeting of SADC water Minsters. A focus of the meeting was formal announcement of the Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM) Agreement after six of the eight countries that share the Zambezi river basin completed their ratification processes and successfully deposited their ratification instruments with the SADC Secretariat. Zambezi ministers responsible for water, who met in Maseru on Wednesday, 21st September, 2011, a day before the meeting for SADC Ministers responsible for water, confirmed that the required number of countries for the Agreement to be in force had been reached. The Zambezi Water Ministers directed the SADC Secretariat to facilitate the establishment of the ZAMCOM Organs speedily within a year. This will be done with the help of the Interim
ZAMCOM Secretariat (IZS) hosted by the Government of the Republic of Botswana Gaborone. The IZS was established in May 2011 and is financially supported by the Norwegian Government, through the Norwegian Embassy in Lusaka in Zambia. The prime objective of the
ZAMCOM Agreement is to promote the equitable and reasonable utilization of the water resources of the Zambezi watercourse as well as its efficient management and sustainable development.
OKACOM organized a side event at the meeting to brief water Minsters from Angola, Botswana and Namibia about completion of the
Cubango-Okavango Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis and OKACOM's Strategic Action programme. Find the media release here:
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