Commentary · Water · Policy perspective
The cheapest water reform on the continent is a shared spreadsheet
Basin cooperation tends to be discussed as diplomacy. In practice, most allocation disputes begin with two states holding incompatible numbers.
Transboundary water is treated as a diplomatic file. It is, but the diplomacy usually fails for a technical reason: riparian states arrive at the table with different flow records, different abstraction estimates and different assumptions about what the basin can supply.
Where basin authorities have established routine, low-ceremony data exchange — monthly, machine-readable, published — the character of negotiation changes. Disagreement moves from whether the water exists to how it should be shared, which is a solvable political question.
The obstacle is rarely technology. It is that data sharing is bundled into comprehensive treaty negotiations rather than treated as an operational protocol that technical staff can agree without a ministerial signature.
References
- PASIDA policy brief: Shared water, separate mandates (illustrative) (2026)
Cite this insight
Fatima Ould Sidi (2026). The cheapest water reform on the continent is a shared spreadsheet. PASIDA Insights, Pan African Sustainability, Innovation and Development Associates. www.pasida.org/insights/water-governance-data-sharing