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DAM-L SADC wants to divert rivers to irrigate deserts/LS (fwd)
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 11:27:36 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
Subject: SADC wants to divert rivers to irrigate deserts/LS
Sender: owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net
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SADC-WATER
SOUTHERN AFRICAN PRESIDENTS LOOKING AT MAKING DRY RIVERS RUN AGAIN
WINDHOEK August 6 2000 Sapa-AFP
The heads of state of southern Africa, meeting in Windhoek, are
looking at diverting the mighty rivers of the region to make the
deserts bloom.
The presidents of the 14-nation Southern African Development
Community (SADC), meeting on Sunday and Monday, are expected to
sign a broad agreement on sharing water, a project that would take
many years, and necessitate outside assistance.
They were gathering Sunday morning for the official opening, due
for 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT).
An agreement on managing the waters of the Orange River, which
rises deep in southern Africa in the Lesotho highlands and empties
into the Atlantic on the South Africa-Namibia border, was
scuppered on Saturday by last-minute technical objections by
Lesotho, but experts will look at diverting water from the vast
Congo River into the Orange.
That, with water also diverted from South Africa's Vaal River,
could see the Molopo River in Botswana and the Nossob River along
the border between Botswana and Namibia flowing again after many
years as dry beds.
Botswana's Water Affairs Minister Boometswe Mokgothu said that
would benefit what is now "basically desert."
"We need a lot of water in our country," he said.
"Agriculture will come into force, wildlife will come up, and
tourism will be revived."
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source: gopher://gopher.anc.org.za/00/anc/newsbrief/2000/news0807
processed Mon 7 Aug 2000 09:45 SAST.
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Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
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