2.
Water Sector Infrastructure situation analysis
2.1
Current Water Sector Status
The current status of the water resources and related infrastructure development in the SADC region
can be summarised as follows and is contained in Table 1:
Water resources significantly vary in distribution (Figures 2.1 and 2.2), availability and usage
across the SADC region;
There is an estimated total of 2 300 km3/year of renewable water resources available to the
SADC region’s population of 260 million people. The renewable water resource is the long‐
term average annual flow of rivers and the recharge of aquifers generated from endogenous
precipitation. Double counting of surface water and groundwater resources is avoided by
deducting the overlap from the sum of the surface water and groundwater resources
(Aquastat 2011);
The current level of abstraction is only 44 km3/year or 170 m3/capita/year. Of the 44 km3/year
abstracted, 77% is used for irrigation, 18% for domestic purposes, while 5% is used by industry
(Aquastat 2008);
If the storage of Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams is excluded, only 4% of the total annual
renewable water resources in the SADC region is currently stored for various uses, which is
very low compared to 70‐90% in most industrialised countries (UNEP 2009);
If the storage of Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams is included, 14% of the total annual renewable
water resources in the SADC region is currently stored for various uses;
There is about 50 million hectares of irrigable land available within the SADC region, of which
only 3.4 million hectares (7%) is currently irrigated (SADC 2011);
The hydropower potential of the SADC region is some 150 GW, of which only 12 GW is
installed (SADC 2011); and
Of SADC’s population of 260 million people, 39% has no access to an adequate, safe drinking
water supply, while 61% has no access to adequate sanitation services (SADC 2011).
Table 1, Figure 1 and the above statistics indicate that while there are apparently adequate water
resources within the SADC region (8 800 m3/capita/year on average), there is inadequate water
sector infrastructure and storage to make these water resources accessible and available to the SADC
citizens to utilise for their economic and social benefit.
Figure 2.3 gives a pictorial view of the surface water storage per capita of selected countries with
storage amounts greater than 500 m3/capita. While some SADC Member States have higher storage
per capita amounts than the USA, Australia and China, this storage is primarily for hydropower
generation. The SADC average storage amount (excluding Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams) is low at
354 m3/capita, and 1 220 m3/capita if the storage of Kariba and Cahora Bassa dams are included
(SADC Average (2) and SADC Average (1) in Figure 2.3 respectively). At world storage per capita
averages of 70‐90% of the total annual renewable water resources, the SADC average in 2027 should
ideally be 4 900 m3/capita stored.
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