Strategic interests in transboundary river cooperation in Southern Africa – the case of the Okavango

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Water is life. Its availability and quality directly relates to what is possible in agriculture as well ashuman health. In Southern Africa, water issues have become an important political agenda as a resultof the droughts that the region has been experiencing. The Southern Africa Development Community(SADC), in its water protocol advises its member states to set up river basin organisations to managetransboundary rivers in Southern Africa. The aim is to encourage the sustainable use of internationalrivers.Sharing international rivers has proven to be a very difficult issue as shown by the voting patterns onthe UN Convention on the Law of Non Navigational Uses of Transboundary Rivers and thesubsequent failure of entry into force of this convention. While strategic interests on the global levelsmanifest themselves in voting patterns in forums like the UN Assembly, the situation is trickier at theregional level. These strategic interests are ever present as a result of states' need for recognition oftheir sovereignty and the inability of states to accept any hierarchical enforcement.This study investigates the impact of these interests at the basin level on the structure of cooperation.With the use of a case study, namely the Okavango River Basin Commission, and guided by regimetheory, the study looks at the process of regime formation and maintenance in the basin. It concludesthat states use cooperative arrangements (international water cooperation regimes) as tools for thestrategic protection of their sovereignty.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University