Awareness and Communication Strategy  Communicate best practices that demonstrate that WDM creates opportunities for providing water to all sectors equitably; and  Communicate best practices that emphasise that WDM, if properly applied, minimizes possible negative impacts to the environment. Sustainable Water Resource Development and Management The SADC Water Sector will:  Communicate that the SADC region is largely water deficient due to a mismatch between water availability and water demand arising from high variability of rainfall in both space and in time - to build a case for sound management of water that promotes integrated use of surface and ground water resources;  Communicate that interested and affected stakeholders should be empowered to actively participate in water resources planning, development and management in order to ensure ownership and sustainability of the water resources infrastructure;  Communicate that besides existing water infrastructure, there are water resource development opportunities in various river basins of southern Africa that can help the region achieve water security;  Communicate that in order to ensure financial sustainability, the Water Sector must run as a business with financial discipline and accountability, and it must explore all available avenues of financing including existing funds, ICPs, local financers and Public-Private Sector-Civil Partnerships; and  Communicate that water developments and operations have risks and hazards that require development and implementation of emergency plans, compliance to precautionary provisions, and welfare provisions for affected communities. Primary Target Audiences: Who will the SADC Water Sector Communicate to? In delivering these messages, the SADC Water Sector will endeavour to reach the following primary target audiences (other audiences could be reached as secondary targets):  The general public: all SADC citizens;  Policy and decision-makers: Senior government officials, ministers, SADC institutions (such as SADC Committees, SADC tribunal and international court), River Basin Organizations (Commissions, Authorities, Joint and Committees);  Politicians: cabinet ministers, parliamentarians and councilors;  Government technocrats: technical experts within relevant departments especially departments of water affairs and River Basin Commissions, River Basin Authorities, and Joint Committees. Examples include engineers, hydrologists, climatologists, economists, sociologists as well as government extension workers who have direct contacts with other target audiences such as water users;  Private sector/civil society: Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), water service providers and the entire business and private sector;  Schools and training institutions: school-going youth, school clubs, teachers and teacher associations, academics and curriculum developers;  Water users: recipient communities or beneficiaries and user communities such as farmers, irrigators, community water committees and other sectoral water users such industries, commercial undertakings and mines; Page iv