The Zambezi River Basin ─ Water and Sustainable Development

The Zambezi river is the fourth longest in Africa, crossing or bordering Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The river basin is widely recognized as one of the most important basins in southern Africa and is the focus of contested development, including water for hydropower and for agricultural irrigation. This book assesses Zambezi basin issues from an impartial perspective, in order to identify real issues and propose real options for solutions.

Focussing on both water-related issues in the basin, and basin-level water issues, the chapters are grouped into four sections. A first section reviews hydrology and water-related conditions, while the second focuses on issues in sustainable agricultural intensification and productive water use. A third section analyses the dynamics of transboundary cooperation between countries in the region. A fourth and final section proposes ways forward in light of the potential benefits that can be achieved through cooperation, and practical political realities that cooperation may take time to achieve.

Jonathan Lautze is?Senior Researcher at the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), based in Pretoria, South Africa.?

Zebediah Phiri is Executive Secretary of the Zambezi Watercourse Commission, based in Harare, Zimbabwe.?

Vladimir Smakhtin is Director of the United Nations University, Institute for Water, Environment and Health, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Davison Saruchera is a PhD candidate at the Wtis School of Governance,?University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.