1. International Rivers and Lakes/Groundwater

Abstract

By a resolution adopted at the thirty-fourth regular meeting of the Council of the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM), held in Windhoek, Namibia on 17–18 August, the State Parties to the Commission—Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and South Africa—decided that a mechanism for permanent cooperation regarding the Stampriet Aquifer System (STAS) shared by Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa shall find a home in ORASECOM. The council decision was subsequently endorsed by the Forum of Water Ministers of the four ORASECOM countries at their regular meeting held in Kasane, Botswana, on 16 November. In the specifics, the ORASECOM member countries resolved that institutionalized cooperation among the three STAS countries be nested in the Groundwater Hydrology Committee (GWHC) of the Commission’s Technical Task Team, which is one of four standing Task Teams constituted and operating under the council. By that same decision, the ORASECOM member countries directed that cooperation regarding the aquifer should focus on: (i) the continued study and characterization of the aquifer; (ii) the generation of data that would feed the STAS borehole database and numerical model (once the latter is operational); and (iii) reporting regularly to the GWHC. Implementation details of the council decision are being worked out by the commission (according to the ORASECOM Secretariat).