Awareness and Communication Strategy water is life and it is not easily accessible due to its scarcity and pervasive poverty in southern Africa, its social value in its allocation and utilization is also recognized in SADC. Charging for water should be used as a means of cost recovery and sustainability of the services. However subsidizing water for domestic use among poor communities should be promoted to support the socially disadvantaged groups.5 Water demand management should, however, be used to ensure positive behaviour towards conservation and efficient water usage, buy in and ownership of the services by stakeholders. This will also ensure cost recovery and signal consumers’ ability and willingness to pay for additional investments in water services. Water is life and its economic value must be recognized and shared with all. 6 2.2.7 The Benefits of IWRM to Other Sectors 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. To who: Government and other stakeholders from all sectors. How: Face-to-face briefing, learning journeys, dialogues such as the SADC Multi-stakeholder Dialogue breakfasts with business, publications, mass media and public events IWRM approach entrenches the need to integrate rights and obligations in the use of water resources among users in order to maximise benefits from its use by all stakeholders. Through integrated management of water resources, every water user becomes a winner. 2.2.8 IWRM and Water Efficiency Plans Communicate that IWRM/WE Plans are key to achieving water related MDGs and, therefore, SADC Member States should ensure their development and implementation To who: Policy makers, government technocrats and civil society from all sectors, and water service providers. How: Face-to-face briefing, learning journeys, publications, mass media and internet (websites)and e-mail, public events (workshops). Integrated Water Resources Management and Water Efficiency Plans, IWRM/WE Plans, were called for in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted at the World Summit for Sustainable Development, WSSD, of 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa. The MDGs call for the countries to prepare and adopt the IWRM/WE Plans by 2005, but no single country has adopted one already. IWRM/WE Plans are in various stages of development and implementation in SADC member states. The commitment to IWRM/WE appear to be missing and requirements and processes of their development are not well known among the public. There is need, therefore, to promote public commitment to the formulation and adoption of these IWRM/WE Plans through dissemination of the principles, 5 6 Cap-net IWRM Tutorial Cap-net IWRM Tutorial Page 15