Bordered Environment: Redefining Transboundary Water Resources into Environmentally Sound Governance Frameworks in Southern Africa

This chapter uses an analytical framework that enhances the understanding of regionalisation in Southern Africa by examining the dynamics at work between countries whose contiguous borders are covered by transboundary water resources. It highlights the path-dependent evolution of regionalisation through dynamics operating at two levels. First are states and actors at that level seeking to establish environmentally sound regional mechanisms for governing transboundary water resources. Second is a logic based on the geography of the region which suggests that people at the grassroots should collaborate in cross-border uses of the transboundary water resources. Secondary data are qualitatively deployed to inform the analysis contained in the chapter. Grassroots actors seem constant in the locally institutionalised cross-border use of transboundary water resources, promising to foster integration. Accommodating traditional institutional frameworks embedded in local cultures and values that govern transboundary watercourse resources at grassroots level will aid regionalisation.