Download or read book Indigenous and institutional profile: Limpopo River Basin written by Anton Earle and published by IWMI. This book was released on 2006-10-17 with total page 67 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents an overview of water-related governance structures and institutions in the Limpopo Basin. The Basin is of critical socio-economic importance to the 14 million peopledistributed across the four riparian states of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe.Urban centers, mostly in Botswana and South Africa, are major water users supplying industries, power stations and municipalities. Water is also used in rural areas for domestic, livestock watering and irrigation purposes. While irrigated agricultural activities are largely concentrated in South Africa and Zimbabwe, the majority of rural populations engage in rain-fed agriculture, which does not guarantee secure livelihoods. This is due, in large part, to the region’s semi-arid climate where only two out of every five agricultural seasons produce reasonable crop yields. These climatic conditions emphasize the need for effective management of transboundary water resources and effective governance structures, delivery and control mechanisms. Appropriate institutional frameworks and governance structures have a pivotal role in defining the socio-economic situation of the people in the Basin.