Mozambique shares no less than nine river basins with neighbouring countries.
This warning was launched in Maputo on Thursday by the National Director of Water, Juliao Alferes, in a communication to mark the celebrations of World Water Day. This year, the theme is "Living with water shortages".
According to Alferes, only about 40 per cent of the average annual flow of water originates from within Mozambique. He said that the use of water in countries upstream has led to a reduction of between 40 and 60 per cent in the amount of water that reaches Mozambique.
This situation is particularly worrying in the southern region, where rains are scarce, and most of the basins are of international rivers, such as the Maputo, the Limpopo, the Umbeluzi, and the Incomati. According to Alferes only 10 per cent of the water in the south originates within Mozambique.
Out of the 14 internationally shared rivers in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Mozambique is on the downstream portion of nine of them. This causes cyclical periods of excess water, during the rainy season, sometimes leading to major floods, and water shortages during the dry season.
The Zambezi river, in the central region, represents practically half of Mozambique's surface water resources and about 75 per cent of its flow originates from the upstream countries.
Speaking on the occasion, Public Works Minister Felicio Zacarias said that the government is aware of the great impact that adequate water supply and sanitation would have on reducing morbidity and mortality caused by diarrhoeal diseases, which in turn would increase school attendance among children, and productivity among adults.
"We must have infrastructures that allow us to retain water and regulate flows in order to make better use of water according to our needs", he said.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) more than one billion people across the world, corresponding to 20 per cent of the world's population, have no access to clean drinking water, and about 2.6 billion have no access to basic sanitation.
FAO believes that the water crisis is a global issue, but it is at its worst in developing countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, and in south Asia.
FAO adds that about a third of the world population lives in countries with difficult access to water, and it is feared that these figures will grow drastically in the next few decades.
SOURCE: AIM
