04 Aug 2025

Minister of Water and Human Settlement, Mr Onneetse Ramogapi has applauded member states for signing the Revised Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM) agreement.

The agreement, which is an updated legal instrument that strengthens cross-border governance and adapts their shared vision to contemporary challenges, was signed by Angola, Botswana and Namibia recently.

Speaking at the 9^th meeting of the OKACOM Forum of Ministers in Maun recently, Mr Ramogapi appreciated that it was through the cooperation, that as riparian states, they were able to allow flows to cross borders for ecosystem sustainability providing services for socio-economic development of their people.

“As downstream member state, we truly appreciate the upstream member states to allow us to also receive some flows for the benefit of our tourism in the Okavango Delta,” he added.

Botswana, he said also recognised the need to support upstream member states on their need to abstract water from the Okavango river basin for their national development with consideration of the ecosystems sustainability.

As such, he declared Botswana’s continued dedication and commitment to the cooperation.

Namibia and Angola also reaffirmed their willingness and commitment to cooperate with other basin states in transboundary waters.

Executive director of Water and Fisheries from Namibia, Mr Teofilus Nghitila also vowed Namibia’s continued commitment in the sustainable management and reasonable utilisation of water resources of the river basin.

Namibia, he said was a signatory to the SADC Treaty and ratified the SADC Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses as well as the 1994 OKACOM Agreement.

“From our side as Namibia, the river basin is our important shared watercourses as all our internal rivers are ephemeral and the perennial rivers which exists are shared with one or more neighbours. It is therefore worth mentioning that the Cubango-Okavango basin signifies the prestige shared watercourses in terms of endowment in natural resources to sustain the livelihood of our inhabitants in North-Eastern Namibia,” he said.

Mr Nghitila said the basin was also endowed with many resources ranging from water, land and fertile soils, forests and wildlife, adding that such natural assets defined their economic activities ranging from irrigated agriculture, fisheries, timber harvesting, manufacturing and tourism.

Namibia, he said had received normal rainfall in most parts of the country for the current rainy season and that had helped the agricultural sector, especially the livestock and communal (subsistence) agriculture sectors to recover from this variability in rainfall patterns in previous years.

Director of International Cooperation under the Ministry of Energy and Water from Angola, Mr Kiala Pierre also reaffirmed the country’s commitment to the integrated and sustainable management of water resources in the basin.

He expressed hope that they could together move forward with the internal ratification of the Revised OKACOM Agreement and with the appointment of women as their representatives in the Women in Water Diplomacy Network, promoting a more inclusive and representative water diplomacy. ENDS