Managing water supply and demand in southern Africa

Abstract

Inadequate growth in food production and increasingly scarce water pose serious constraints to food security and future economic development in Southern Africa.' Much of the region is semi-arid or arid, so that irrigation is required to stabilize or increase agricultural production. The serious droughts of the past decade have shown how important is the role of controlled water supplies for food security at the local, national, and regional levels. But agricultural water use cannot be developed in isolation; it must be balanced with the increasing water demands for domestic, industrial, livestock, and even environmental uses. Nor can any country balance its own water resources in isolation, because the rivers of the region are intricately interlaced across national boundaries. This situation calls for serious attention to the allocation of water among uses and users.