The countries concerned are Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. Interim Chairperson of the Limpopo Water Course Commission (LIMCOM), Sergio Sitoe told delegates at a meeting in Francistown that water use is not only limited to the ministry responsible for it but everyone else in the countries concerned.
Co-presenting the paper on benefit sharing and regional cooperation, Bertrand Meiner and Capacity Development Advisor Peter Qwist-Hoffmann of the GTZ responsible for Trans-boundary Water Management in SADC said parties sharing water-courses commonly encounter problems when attempting to allocate the water volumes that are available. He explained that the primary cause of this is the "so called" Zero Sum Dilemma, which exists where the volume of water is finite and capped. He said in these circumstances, a re-allocation of water implies that what is gained by one riparian is lost in equal amount by one or more other parties. "The riparians losing water volumes in such scenarios are commonly reluctant to proceed to an agreement for obvious reasons," he said.
