The availability of water is a cardinal factor in the survival and development of states and peoples. Of the estimated regional average of 152 cubic meters of water required by each of the 145 million inhabitants of Southern Africa, South Africans and Mauritanians each use 420 cubic meters, while in Malawi average use is only 20 cubic meters per capita per year. In addition, we are of course not only talking about water scarcity. Abundance of water, at the wrong time, can be even more destructive than its absence - as we have tragically seen in the past weeks in Mozambique and elsewhere in the region. The regional efforts which are currently being undertaken in Southern Africa to help a neighbour in a time of emergency are a positive sign and have raised everyone's awareness that water-related problems cannot be left to be solved by individual countries, particularly poor, downstream countries, on their own.
Regional solidarity is needed for the prevention of crises as well as during emergency relief.
This workshop was held to assist the sharing of information and ideas among the states and peoples of the region, and as a precursor to the Water for Peace in Southern Africa panel debate to be held by Green Cross International at the World Water Forum in the Hague on Monday 20 March 2000.