The importance of water cannot be stressed enough. Water is not only vital to the human population in terms of domestic needs, but it is also directly and indirectly linked to many other areas related to the environment, economy, and health. Ensuring the sustainability of these resources has become a matter of global concern. Better management of water resources is a genuine guarantee of social peace and prosperity for our communities.

The Congo basin, in which the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) holds about 2/3 of the total drainage area, is located in Central Africa, and is shared by nine riparian countries. Hydrologically, the Congo basin is the second largest river basin in the world, behind the Amazon basin. It generates an annual flow volume of about 1,300 billion m3 at its outlet, which represents more than half of the total discharge of the African continent. The basin offers opportunities for the production and satisfaction of many goods and services, including agriculture and food security, fisheries, hydropower, water supply, transport, maintenance of aquatic biodiversity and vulnerable ecosystems such as flooded forests and peatlands. It also has a unique and diverse natural assets that places it in a relevant geostrategic position. The basin plays a key role in the circulation of atmospheric moisture and carbon budgets at the regional and global scales. Overall, the basin has the potential to play a leading role in regional cooperation to reduce poverty, while providing opportunities for livelihoods and income to communities for sustainable development in African.

On one hand, the Congo basin offers the potential to support regional cooperation for the management of shared water systems; on the other hand, this resource is the subject of potential conflicts between competing uses (Tshimanga et al., 2022). The theme of water wars is frequently highlighted in literature and debates in the basin as one of the many facets of emerging conflicts – exacerbated by the impacts of climate change and new migration patterns (Dialogue des Peuples, 2016).

Demands for water to support socio-economic growth continue to rise, although the quality services to meet them are far behind. These demands are not only expected from the nine riparian countries, but also from other water scarce regions of Africa. The strategic challenge for the future is, therefore, to secure water in sufficient quantity and quality to meet the growing competing demands for agricultural, commercial, domestic, environmental and industrial needs (Tshimanga et al., 2022) :

​The major challenges can be summarised as follows :

• Impacts of humain activities and pressure on water resources which include large-scale deforestation, mining activities, dislocation and pollution of rivers, rapid and sometimes uncontrolled urbanisation, sedimentation of water resourses and loss of aquatics habitats ;
• Methods of measurement and estimation of hydro-climatic parameters, including inadequate hydro-meterological network, lack of experimental research, lack of information on water resources dynamics ;
• Uncertainty in the management of water resources which includes inadequate legal and institutional framework reflecting the lack of synergy between the various stakeholders, redundancy of actions and lack of transparency, lack of decision support systems ; and
• Uncertainty due to climate change. 

Investment in the science, innovation and capacity building needed to develop a better understanding of the dynamics of water resources and improve access to their services is largely lacking. Achieving sustainable development and inclusive growth in the Congo basin region would be seriously compromised if water resources are not managed and used in a sustainable, integrated and efficient manner. As the countries of the Congo basin region strive to improve political, economic and social stability, the need for sucure water supplies will become increasingly important.

If this aspect is neglected, there is a risk of conflicts :

1. within communities - due to a lack of access to water resource services ;
2. between countries - due to a lack of agreement on the «sharing of transboundary water resources and
3. between social groups due to a sharing of water resources perceived as not being inclusive(distributive justice).