Botswana Guardian
20 June
Emmanuela Sakala
This year’s UN Desertification and Drought Day is commemorated under the theme “Restore the Land. Unlock the opportunities”, highlighting how land restoration boosts water and food security, contributes to job creation and supports climate action. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), adopted in 1994, seeks to address desertification and the effects of drought. In 1996, Botswana ratified the UNCCD, committing to mitigate the impact of land degradation by protecting and restoring land to ensure the provision of food, water, shelter and economic opportunity.
Various scientific studies categorise Botswana’s climate as semi-arid to arid, as it receives little rainfall and is drought prone. It is highly vulnerable to climate variability and change as it depends on natural resources and rain-fed agriculture. Droughts have significant impacts on people’s ability to sustain their livelihoods. Rural and poor communities in Botswana are particularly affected as they directly depend on the availability of natural resources. A lack of access to fertile land that is not degraded and a sufficient quantity and quality of water are matters of life and death for them. Water scarcity has been associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality in children under the age of 5 years.
Botswana developed a National Drought Plan 2020 (NDP) to proactively outline approaches to manage drought and address vulnerabilities that worsen its impact as part of its commitment to mitigating land degradation. While the development of the NDP is a commendable progressive step, Botswana still faces challenges in addressing drought and its related effects. One of the NDP’s guiding principles relates to prudent resource management and particularly acknowledges a rights-based approach that ensures equitable access to water resources for all. This recognises effective water resource management as a tool that minimises the impacts of droughts and land degradation.
This year’s Desertification and Drought Day theme presents an opportunity for reflection on the implementation of the NDP and related drought resilience measures, particularly effective water resource management. Water resource management must be transparent and accountable to be effective. It must not exclude primary water users from decision-making processes and must ensure they have access to information about their water resources. Leaving communities in the dark and unable to meaningfully participate in managing the water resources available to them strips them of their agency. It undermines the effectiveness and sustainability of drought and water management initiatives.
Transparency in managing and allocating water resources is a prerequisite for ensuring accountability. When communities and water users cannot access information about their resources’ planning, design and management, they cannot monitor use, assert their needs and priorities, contribute to rationing and conservation or participate in any appeal processes. Access to information empowers them to take ownership of building a drought resilient water resource management plan that ensures equitable allocation to domestic, agricultural and industrial needs.
This requirement to make water-related information readily available and accessible is rooted in the constitutionally protected right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to access information. Meaningful expression and public participation necessarily require access to information, especially when it is in the public interest. Further, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ Guidelines on the Right to Water in Africa also requires that States ensure that:
“…individuals and communities, especially vulnerable and marginalized groups, are given full and equal access, in an understandable and adapted manner, to information on their right to water and ways to exercise it and information concerning water management, water services and the environment, whether this information is held by public authorities or third parties.”
Unfortunately, in a recent case between the Botswana Gazette and Water Utility Corporation, this right to access to information was not upheld. The High Court dismissed a case brought by the Botswana Gazette after it was refused access by the Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) to a report on the water flow into the Gaborone Dam. The Gazette argued that the refusal to provide access to the report is unreasonable and violates the right to freedom of expression, which includes the right to access information that is in the public interest. The WUC’s position was that it already provides information to the public on water levels, sensitive public water management issues, and conservation. The Gazette submitted that the WUC must “promote transparency in the water sector” and “ensure the meaningful participation of communities in decision-making processes in the water sector.” The Court held that the right to access the report cannot be justified under the constitution as Parliament is yet to enact a freedom of information law. The Gazette has since filed an appeal against the decision.
The failure to promptly address gaps in access to water-related information ultimately affects the effectiveness of prudent water resource management as a tool for minimising the impact of droughts. Accountable management of land and water resources reduces exposure to food insecurity and water scarcity.
Positive impacts have been observed in initiatives that take a more sustainable and participatory approach to natural resource management in arid areas. For example community led soil and water conservation (SWC) practices in the arid Sahel region in Burkina Faso and Niger from 1980 onwards observed that there was enhanced water infiltration and increased moisture in farmlands and improved crop yields, particularly in areas with limited rainfall. Other benefits observed included more secure base flows in local streams, reduced sedimentation, the re-emergence of springs, and higher groundwater levels and the growth of indigenous trees, Soil and water conservation (SWC) practices have been used in dryland areas to reverse environmental degradation, enhance groundwater resources, and to achieve socioeconomic benefits of improved local livelihoods through increased agricultural production.
When drought risks go unabated, the ripple effects extend to forcing communities to migrate in search of food, water and fertile land to sustain themselves. An approach to restoring land must therefore be an integrated approach that takes into account the critical land-water nexus, without which opportunities for improved and sustainable livelihoods will remain far-fetched for many people in Botswana.
