Zambia Accedes to UNECE Convention
Zambia celebrates accession but currently faces acute drought (IMAGE: World Bank)
4 Oct 2024 by The Water Diplomat

Zambia and the UNECE are expecting to celebrate the country’s accession to the Convention on the Protection and Use of Transboundary Watercourses and International Lakes (UN Water Convention) at the upcoming 10th Meeting Of the Parties (MOP 10) in Ljubliana, Slovenia, in October this year. This follows a formal decision taken by by the Zambian Cabinet in February this year to accede to the convention.
In February, the government of Zambia declared that the country has weak transboundary and international water governance as well as weak international integrated water resources management that could result in tensions and differences at regional and international levels. Therefore, the government stated, acceding to the Water Convention will signal to the International Community that Zambia is committed to international and transboundary cooperation.
This decision was taken in a period which coincided with a severe drought and pressure on water resources: on the 29th of February the State President, Hakainde Hichilema, issued a public statement to the effect that the drought, linked to the El Niño weather conditions in the 2023-2024 rainy season, was having devastating consequences on many critical sectors such as agriculture, water availability, and energy supply. As a result, the decision was taken to declare the drought to be a national disaster and emergency, setting in motion a range of measures aimed at channeling resources towards humanitarian relief, rationing energy use, importing extra food and calling on international support to provide relief.
Although the motivation of Zambia to accede to the Water Convention was not directly related to drought, there are added advantages that follow from the accession which do have an impact on drought response processes. For instance, the UNECE programme of work supports countries in achieving water allocations in a sustainable and equitable manner. On the 15th and 16th of April, a workshop was held in Livingstone, Zambia, supported amongst others by UNECE and co-led by Finland and Hungary on transboundary water allocation and interrelationships between water, energy and food.
The drought in Zambia is an aspect of a wider drought that has gripped Southern Africa this year, affecting south-eastern Angola, much of Botswana, Lesotho, parts of Madagascar, southern Malawi, central Mozambique, northern Namibia, central South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. More than 61 million people have been affected, leading the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to launch a U.S. $ 5.5 billion humanitarian appeal in May this year.
The water resources of Southern Africa are strongly transboundary in nature: some 70% of river flow in the region crosses at least one border, and the region has 15 major transboundary rive basins. In the case of Zambia, the country’s entire territory is located within the two largest transboundary river basins in Southern Africa: 25% of its surface area lies within the Congo River Basin, which it shares with Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, DR Congo, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The Congo River Basin has an area of 3 730 470km ² and a flow of 41,200 m³/s, transporting about a third of the continent’s water.
The remaining 75% of Zambia’s territory lies in the Zambezi River Basin, which it shares with Angola, Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. The Zambezi River Basin has a surface area of 1 390 000 km² and has an annual average flow of 3360 m3/s. However, the flows of the Zambezi River into Zambia at Victoria Falls measured 371 m3/s , dropping to 264m³/s in September.
Given the importance of transboundary water cooperation for the region, the SADC has had a Protocol on Shared Watercourses in the Southern African Development Community in place since 1995. This protocol was revised in 2000, leading to the Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourses in the Southern African Development Community which aims to foster closer cooperation among Member States for the protection, management, and use of shared watercourses in the region. In particular, the protocol advocates for the establishment of shared watercourse agreements as well as the establishment of dedicated River Basin Organisations (RBOs), in order to ensure coordinated and sustainable management of shared watercourses within the SADC region. The revised protocol contains many similarities to the 1997 UN Watercourses Convention, and the current accession to the 1992 Convention is seen to provide some complementarities in terms of the legal framework guiding transboundary water governance. In addition, through accession, opportunities are opened for capacity building, knowledge sharing, access to funding mechanisms as well as perspectives for investment.
Zambia is the 55th country globally – and the 12th country from Africa - to join the UN Water Convention. This follows the accessions of Côte D'Ivoire and Zimbabwe in July this year. This further consolidates the strong momentum for water cooperation in Africa, where more than 90% of freshwater rivers, lakes and aquifers are shared by two or more countries.
The Secretary to the Water Convention, Ms Sonja Koeppel, highlighted that “Zambia’s accession to the Convention is a significant milestone for the country in its strategic efforts on multiple fronts towards collectively strengthening its transboundary water cooperation.”
Honourable Engineer Collins Nzovu, MP, Minister of Water Development and Sanitation of Zambia, recognized that “Zambia’s accession to the United Nations Water Convention is a strong instrument to help us reach water-related sustainable development goals and to support global adaptation action which will lead to enhanced bilateral and multilateral cooperation in transboundary water resources management particularly now as we face the devastating effects of climate change in the region”.
The UN Water Convention is a global legal and intergovernmental framework as well as a platform within the UN system (serviced by UNECE) to support cooperation and sustainable management of shared waters, including groundwaters.
Accession by a country to the UN Water Convention further advances progress in the area of Sustainable Development Goal 6 on water and sanitation. Indicator 6.5.2 in the SDG 6 monitoring framework measures the proportion of the area within transboundary basins within a country that are covered by an operational arrangement for water cooperation. The results from the 3rd reporting cycle on SDG 6.5.2 shows that Zambia’s score increased from 70% of all its shared basins covered by operational agreements for cooperation in 2020 to 77.7% in 2023.