® SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY PREAMBLE WE, the Heads of State or Government of: The Republic of Angola The Republic of Botswana The Democratic Republic of the Congo The Kingdom of Lesotho The Republic of Malawi The Republic of Mauritius The Republic of Mozambique The Republic ofNamibia The Republic of Seychelles The Republic of South Africa The Kingdom of Swaziland The United Republic of Tanzania The Republic of Zambia The Republic of Zimbabwe BEARING in mind the progress with the development and codification of international water law initiated by the Helsinki Rules and that the United Nations subsequently adopted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses; RECOGNISING the relevant provisions of Agenda 21 of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the concepts of environmentally sound management, sustainable development and equitable utilisation of shared watercourses in the SADC Region; CONSIDERING the existing and emerging socio-economic development programmes in the SADC Region and their impact on the environment; DESIROUS of developing close cooperation for judicious, sustainable and co-ordinated utilisation of the resources of the shared watercourses in the SADC Region; CONVINCED of the need for co-ordinated and environmentally sound development of the resources of shared watercourses in the SADC Region in order to support sustainable socioeconomic development; RECOGNISING that there are as yet no regional conventions regulating common utilisation and management of the resources of shared watercourses in the SADC Region; ·1·