Water Diplomacy: Effecting Bilateral Partnerships for the Exploration and Mobilization of Water for Development

Abstract

In the face of economic challenges facing small developing states, they have had to find innovative and entrepreneurial ways of securing funding to develop national infrastructure and to cope in an increasingly competitive global environment. In such an environment small states continue to seek niche markets in which they can attract foreign direct investment, and identify new frontiers for conducting diplomacy. One such way, is through the exchange of expertise and technology from the more to the less developed countries to help explore, access, store and utilize water resources in return for which the latter is able to secure funding for infrastructure and other developmental projects. The paper examines the role of bilateral arrangements in assisting small developing states to explore and mobilize water resources. This is done through an analysis of arrangements between South Africa and Lesotho around the area of “water diplomacy”. In so doing, the discussion explores one type of partnership that can develop between states around the management and use of water resources for mutual benefit and also, illustrate how water becomes a trade-able commodity and the basis for entrepreneurial diplomatic relations between states.