The following essay was prepared by Stefano Burchi, Chairman of the International Association for Water Law (AIDA), and former consultant to the GGRETA project. He can be reached at stefano.burchi [@] gmail.com.
Background
The Stampriet Transboundary Aquifer System (STAS) stretches from Central Namibia into Western Botswana and South Africa’s Northern Cape Province, and lies entirely within the Orange-Senqu River Basin (see map). The STAS is a very large transboundary aquifer system, receiving relatively insignificant recharge, in a semi-arid to arid region without permanent surface water. It covers a total area of around 87 000 km², of which 73% lies in Namibia, 19% in Botswana, and 8% in South Africa. The area is sparsely populated with slightly over 45,000 persons concentrated in communities ranging from small rural settlements to villages and towns. Groundwater is the major source of water in the area and provides potable water to the population and livestock and for irrigation. There currently are no industrial or mining activities taking place in the STAS area. Over 20 million m³/year of groundwater is abstracted from the Aquifer, a considerable majority of which occurs in Namibia (over 95%). The largest consumer of water is agriculture in the form of irrigation, followed by stock watering and domestic use. There is a sizeable amount of water that is lost through evaporation and to invasive plant species and that is difficult to estimate.
With financial assistance from the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), and with the technical assistance of UNESCO-IHP, the STAS countries have been actively cooperating in assessing the aquifer and its characteristics since 2013, through the Governance of Groundwater Resources in Transboundary Aquifers (GGRETA) project. That project aims to facilitate cooperation among countries sharing select transboundary aquifers (TBAs). In addition to the STAS, the GGRETA project is active in Central America on the Ocotepeque-Citalá Aquifer shared by El Salvador and Honduras (see here), and in Central Asia on the Pre-Tashkent Aquifer System shared by Kazakhstan and Uzberkistan.
The first phase of the project (2013-2015) focused on an in-depth assessment of the STAS using existing data and information, which allowed for the establishment of a shared science-based understanding of the aquifer. The activities of the second phase (2016-2018) focused primarily on consolidating the technical results achieved and the tools developed in the first phase. It also addressed strengthening capacity of national water institutions and academia in groundwater governance at the national and transboundary levels in order to support the process of establishing a Multi-Country Cooperation Mechanism (MCCM) for the governance and management of the STAS.
The first phase of the project (2013-2015) focused on an in-depth assessment of the STAS using existing data and information, which allowed for the establishment of a shared science-based understanding of the aquifer. The activities of the second phase (2016-2018) focused primarily on consolidating the technical results achieved and the tools developed in the first phase. It also addressed strengthening capacity of national water institutions and academia in groundwater governance at the national and transboundary levels in order to support the process of establishing a Multi-Country Cooperation Mechanism (MCCM) for the governance and management of the STAS.
The cooperation facilitated by the GGRETA project has yielded an in-depth assessment of aquifer characteristics, including current and projected uses of groundwater and likely future stress conditions under relevant factors.
The assessment also revealed a number of challenges:
- lack of monitoring data seriously hampers a systematic diagnostic analysis of groundwater quantity-related stress;
- pollution by humans and animals, and that caused by poor well construction and lack of protection, is currently localized in the shallower parts of the STAS;
- although there is no mining or industrial activity in the STAS area at present, unregulated mining activities might lead in the future to pollution of the aquifer system due to its fragility and vulnerability;
- vertical leakage between superposed aquifers is accelerating due to uncemented borehole casings and metallic corrosion.
In view of the importance of the aquifer’s resources to the future of the local population, the three countries sharing the aquifer concurred in 2016 on the desirability of establishing a Multi-Country Cooperation Mechanism (MCCM) for the joint governance and management of the STAS.
The STAS MCCM
On 17-18 May 2017, delegations from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa attended the 3rd meeting of the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) Ground Water Hydrology Committee (GWHC) and Technical Task Team (TTT), where they tabled a proposal to establish the STAS MCCM within the ORASECOM structure. The proposal was put before the 34th Ordinary meeting of the ORASECOM Council, held 17-18 August 2017 in Windhoek, Namibia. The Council resolved that the STAS MCCM “be nested/housed” within the ORASECOM GWHC. While it is unclear whether the Council formally resolved to “establish” or “create” the mechanism, its intent to do so is clearly implied by its decision to “nest/house” such mechanism in the ORASECOM structure. Moreover, the Council resolution was subsequently endorsed by the Ordinary meeting of the ORASECOM Forum of the Parties (Ministers responsible for water), held on 16 November 2017 in Kasane, Botswana. Relevant milestones and a schedule of implementation were also approved, with implementation being reportedly in progress.
The STAS MCCM aims at integrating the GGRETA project support structure in the GWHC. The GGRETA project hydrogeology/model, legal and institutional, and gender National Focal Points (NFP) in the three countries will assist and report to the GWHC Officials on data collection, which will serve as a basis for the development of scenarios and project activities. In the short term, GWHC Officials will be in charge of updating the STAS joint borehole database during GWHC meetings, and reporting to the Technical Task Team (TTT) on the work program according to the planning and annual budget. The TTT will then report to the Council. Ad hoc Working Groups (AWG) composed of experts nominated by the Council or GWHC will be formed as and when necessary for the evaluation of studies, and to support the design of projects and activities. Other concerned stakeholders (e.g. the SADC Groundwater Management Institute) would be invited to GWHC meetings on a regular basis.
The long term vision is for the STAS MCCM to move from data collection and exchange to joint strategizing and advising STAS countries on the management of the aquifer and its resources.
The decision to “nest/house” a STAS joint governance mechanism in an existing river basin organization can be regarded as a breakthrough in many respects. First, it is the first arrangement for the governance of a transboundary aquifer since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2016. Prior to the STAS cooperative mechanism, only a handful of formal agreements worldwide had been developed for TBAs (see summary at the end of the essay). Second, it is the first governance mechanism to be nested formally in a river basin organization, which attests to the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) approach with potential for, in particular, the conjunctive management of groundwater and surface water. Third, the fact that activities related to the STAS are now built in ORASECOM’s 10-year IWRM Plan (2015-2024) can be regarded as an indicator of the sustainability of the institutiional arrangement made. As a result, ORASECOM will be responsible for the implementation and reporting on activities related to the STAS. Lastly, the process that led to the decision to institutionalize cooperation on the STAS was remarkably expeditious. The process was expedited by a combination of factors, chief among them a clear perception by the countries concerned of the advantages of cooperation in the face of the challenges looming ahead. The institutional architecture of ORASECOM, structured into a Forum of the Parties, a Council, a Secretariat, four standing Task Teams, and committees operating under the latter (among these, the GWHC operating under the standing Technical Task Team), also helped as the proposal that was initiated by the GWHC could quickly and seamlessly work its way up the institutional ladder to the highest decision-making body of the Commission, for a decision in less than a year.
Information generated by the GGRETA project and STAS databases are currently available at http://wis.orasecom.org/stas/
NOTE: Legally binding agreements are on record for the following TBAs: North-Western Sahara Aquifer System (Algeria, Libya, Tunisia); Nubian Sandstone Aquifer System (Chad, Egypt, Libya, Sudan); the Genevese Aquifer (France, Switzerland); and Al Sag/Al Disi Aquifer (Jordan, Saudi Arabia). An agreement on the Guaraní Aquifer (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay) is pending delivery of the final ratification to the agreement’s secretariat, while an agreement on the Iullemeden Aquifer System (Algeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria) is pending signature by some of the Parties.