Under the Paris Agreement, countries make voluntary national climate commitments called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The NDCs are important as they outline what a country intends to do to address climate change challenges, along with the resources that are required to achieve this. While many NDCs mention water, most do not yet include it in a meaningful or measurable way.
A delegation from Lesotho joined the global water and sanitation changemakers at the World Water Week 2023 in Stockholm, Sweden from 20th -24th August 2023 to showcase how Lesotho through various projects including the support to Integrated Catchment Management, ReNOKA, is contributing to the NDCs
This year, the conference was held under the theme: “Seeds of Change: Innovative Solutions for a Water-Wise World”, a call for action for people to rethink how they manage water. Throughout the years, the water topic has been topping the global headlines.
In the the session titled “ Watering the Nationally Determined Contributions” (NDCs) the Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) Coordination Unit, Coordinator Mr. Makomoreng Fanana presented the different NDC measures Lesotho is addressing i.e. Strengthening of an integrated early warning system (EWS), support to the revision of water related legislation, policies and strategies to include climate change issues, implementation of ICM, improve risk assessment and vulnerability mapping for response planning etc. All these measure targets have been addressed by commissioning Climate Risk and Vulnerability Assessments for two Catchment Management Areas, developing a Land cover database using satellite imagery and a Compendium of Soil and Water Conservation Measures was developed and is in use to guide implementation of ICM measures
The challenges climate change poses to the water systems are clear. These challenges are painfully tangible and distinctly collective. Fitting then, that the return to in-person programming at Stockholm World Water Week enabled both tangible connections and collective problem solving”,Fanana said.
The World Water Week is the place to explore new ways of managing water and tackle humanity’s greatest challenges. The Week covers topics ranging from food security, WASH, health to agriculture, technology, biodiversity, and the climate crisis. Decisions on a concerted action to achieve the internationally agreed water-related goals and targets are also reached by countries at the conference.
He explained that ReNOKA’s involvement at the World Water Week underscores the Lesotho’s commitment to education and capacity-development with the human resources needed to address water challenges, not just in Lesotho but in the SADC region, effectively.
Following the conference, the team participated in a learning exchange in Germany where institutions such as the Rhine River commission were visited to better appreciate how transboundary water resources are managed as well as visiting the Ahr Valley, where heavy rainfalls caused floods in July 2021. The importance of investing in early warning systems as part of disaster management during these times of climate change could not have been more underscored than during this visit.
ReNOKA focuses on a risk-informed approach to catchment management that advance resilience by systematically considering climate risks in the catchment management process and fostering nature-based solutions for adaptation to climate change.
The delegation of Lesotho was made up of the ICM Coordination Unit and the implementing partners, Lesotho Meteorological Service (LMS) and the Department of Water Affairs.This participation of ReNOKA at the World Water Week was funded by the European Union (EU) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), through the GIZ Support to Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) programme.
