The Incomati & Maputo Watercourse Commission Planning for Climate Disasters
ESWATINI, Mozambique, and South Africa’s readiness to mitigate and adapt to climate change effects is being enhanced.
This comes in the footsteps of the newly established INMACOM (Incomati and Maputo Water Commission) which is in the process of compiling a Disaster Management Plan. This is according to the INMACOM Interim Executive Secretary, Edward Mswane.
The purpose of the inquiry was to establish how the new commission would benefit the three countries in climate disasters. Worth noting is that the Incomati and Maputo Watercourse Commission (INMACOM) is a transboundary river basin organisation operating in the Incomati and Maputo basins. INMACOM was officially established on November 18, 2021.
Before that, INMACOM existed as the Tripartite Permanent Technical Committee (TPTC) which was established in 1983. The formation of INMACOM as a River Basin Organisation (RBO) is aligned with SADC principles on the management of shared transboundary water resources.
In his response, the Interim Executive Secretary said the Member States convened to discuss how they would manage disastersespecially those that would be predicted to hit.
An example of this was El Nino draught, which was predicted early 2023 to hit this year. Another example is the frequent tropical cyclones which continue to threaten the aforementioned countries.
“Usually, water rationing or curtailing is applied in irrigation. INMACOM is currently doing a Disaster Management Plan study in the basins. The disasters we are looking at are floods, drought, and water pollution.”
“We are cognizant of the fact that climate change is contributing to these disasters. This study will come up with a plan on how the countries will communicate in the event these disasters befall them and how they will manage the situation”, he said.
“Another study that is currently being carried out by INMACOM is the comprehensive water sharing agreement. Some of the effects of climate change that we have experienced in our basins over the years is stream flow reduction,” said Mswane.
He further stated that this study would assess if the agreed figures on water sharing or allocation in the three countries were still relevant and make recommendations if there was a need to amend them.
“INMACOM’S vision is to be a leading transboundary water management institution that promotes sustainable and equitable management and protection of the shared water resources in the Maputo and Incomati river basins. The mandate we have as a River Basin Organisation (RBO) is to ensure that the Member States get their share of the water in the two rivers.”
“By so doing, the National water institutions like ESWADE in Eswatini get their water allocation which they further allocate to their farmers, and by so doing the communities at grassroots level are reached and poverty is alleviated. The same applies in Mozambique and South Africa,” explained the Interim Executive Secretary to this reporter.
Worth noting is that in the years 2015 and 2016, the Kingdom of Eswatini was hit hard by El Nino- which resulted in a famine in the Southern parts of the country.
Agricultural activities were assassinated in the country and the residents of the Capital, Mbabane, were subjected to water rationing- where they would go four days without water