Awareness and Communication Strategy Key Message Areas: What will the SADC Water Sector Communicate? The IWRM Approach The SADC Water Sector will:  Communicate that water management is everyone’s business: “SADC citizens must work together to manage water and related resources and services to ensure equity, maximum contribution to regional integration, economic investments and development, poverty eradication and a sustainable environment;”  Communicate the IWRM approach as “Watering life together forever”;  Communicate that people should conserve the finite and limited resource for present and future use;  Communicate that water is everyone’s interest and, as such, everyone should participate in its development, management and conservation;  Communicate that women are key custodians of water and their needs must be considered through their effective participation in decision-making and implementation;  Communicate that water has an economic and social value: Water users have the right to access water and also the responsibility to invest in water resources or pay for the services taking cognisance of their ability to pay;  Communicate that IWRM benefits all sectors by ensuring more crops per drop, more energy per drop, more profit per drop, more jobs and income per drop, and better life per drop for today and tomorrow; and  Communicate that IWRM/WE Plans are key to achieving water related MDGs and, therefore, SADC Member States should ensure their development and implementation. SADC Instruments for Regional Cooperation on Water The SADC Water Sector will:  Communicate that SADC has an effective institutional arrangement that is driving regional cooperation and integration in water resources development and management;  Communicate that SADC has developed and is implementing key policy and legal instruments for regional cooperation and integration in water resources management;  Communicate that SADC is not just about meetings and summits but is delivering its commitment to citizens through a number of water programme and projects; and  Communicate that SADC water programme and projects are achieving a lot in contributing to poverty eradication, and fostering regional integration and cooperation in SADC. Climate Change, Variability and Water-Related Disasters The SADC Water Sector will:  Communicate that regional and national climate change related instruments and activities should be adapted to the provisions of the relevant regional and international agreements that Member States are party to;  Communicate that SADC needs to develop, adopt and implement proactive strategies that anticipate, reliably predict and give advance warnings of such disasters; Page ii