Skip to Content

SADC Water Information Sharing Hub (SWISH)

Created by BRichter on Jan 20 2011

The intention of this project is to support and facilitate sharing of information (defined for this project as documents, calendars, news items and glossaries) throughout the SADC Water Sector. The project supports objectives for information sharing between relevant stakeholders described in the SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses, as revised (2000), and, the objectives of the Regional Strategic Action Plan on Integrated Water Resources Development and Management II (RSAP-2).

To enable these policies, the SADC Water Division, supported by GIZ, developed the concept of a SADC Water Information Sharing Hub to: (1) foster information exchange and knowledge management within SADC Water Sector; and (2) create new tools for awareness raising among stakeholders. Additionally, development of the Hub should result in the preparation of a joint discussion paper on data-sharing between Member States that describes: (1) relevant data for sharing; (2) procedures and tools for joint management of data, and; (3) develop mechanisms for future cooperation. This approach was approved by the SADC Water Division, the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) and the “Water Strategy Reference Group” of the International Cooperating Partners (ICPs) in the SADC Water Sector.

The work that will be completed in the first quarter of 2011 will see the completion of the assessment phase through the definition of standards and standard procedures; and the development of an action plan for medium and long term development options – including resource requirements, funding, and sustainability. Building upon this assessment the project team will then develop a pilot project with five partner-websites from the SADC Water Sector (SADC Water Division portal, SADC Water Sector ICP Collaboration Portal, ORASECOM, OKACOM and IPS Southern Africa Water Wire) to demonstrate the technology and protocols that have been defined. This will enable the project team to demonstrate benefits of the proposed approach and from there develop a plan to roll-out the SWISH to the SADC Water Sector. Once this plan is approved by SADC and relevant stakeholders, the project team will implement the SWISH with all accepting parties.

Project Documents

Project Start: Third quarter 2010
Project End: Second quarter 2011
Contact: Dr. Horst M. Vogel