A systematic literature review was conducted according to the PRISMA 2020 protocol, which is a research method that employs systematic and transparent procedures to identify, select, assess, and synthesize studies aimed at achieving specific research objectives (Page et al., 2021). The PRISMA framework ensures clear and open reporting of the review's objectives, methodologies, and outcomes. The review focuses on studies related to water availability, access, infrastructure, governance, and the impacts of climate change within the region.

The inclusion criteria for this review are studies that address water security issues within Southern Africa. It includes studies that deal with problems of water security in the countries of Southern Africa. It thus covers the countries such as Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. As depicted in Figure 1 on the map below. Studies considered eligible include peer-reviewed articles, policy documents, and reports that contain empirical data, either as case studies or analyses of the region's water security situation. The studies must also be published between 2015 and 2025 in English. Exclusion criteria included studies that fall outside the Southern African context, those that fall outside the subject of water security, and those having inadequate empirical evidence or relevance to this study on climate change and water governance. A map highlighting the countries considered in the study, including Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe is depicted in Figure 1:

Data for this systematic review were collected from academic databases such as Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus, and Web of Science. Over and above peer-reviewed journal articles, gray literature from government reports, policy documents, and publications from international organizations (e.g., the Southern African Development Community, World Bank) was included to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the regional water security context.

To leverage the strengths of PRISMA as a systematic literature review methodology, peer-reviewed articles were sourced from Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus, and Web of Science. Search terms included “water security,” “Southern Africa,” “climate change,” “water infrastructure,” “water availability,” and governance of water resources.” Boolean operators AND/OR were used to combine various permutations of the above words in order to filter the search. The timeframe was set from 2015 to 2025 to ensure recent studies could be identified, thus meeting the requirements of this article. This search across these databases yielded the articles, reports, and case studies that meet this article's criteria. Table 1 shows both the generic and refined search criteria. Both searches were conducted from 02 April 2025. Table 2 show additional information that led to the exclusion and inclusion of other articles.

A total of 209 articles were identified in Google Scholar, Research Gate, Scopus, and Web of Science. After duplicates were removed, 204 articles remained to be thoroughly screened. The article selection process followed a two-step procedure. From the 209 articles that were identified initially, five (5) duplicates were removed and 204 articles were screened. Initially, titles and abstracts of articles were screened for relevance to the article's focus on water security, climate change, and Southern Africa. In the second step, the full text of the remaining 134 articles was assessed for eligibility, and a further sixty (60) articles were removed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. A PRISMA flowchart, shown in Figure 2, illustrates the number of studies identified, screened, assessed for eligibility, and included in the final review.

Data were extracted from the selected studies, covering details on water availability, infrastructure reliability, climate change, and governance mechanisms. Data extraction was done using a structured Excel template, capturing key details such as the study's location, methodology, findings, and the specific challenges addressed. This process was standardized to ensure consistency and comprehensiveness.

The results were blended using a narrative synthesis strategy. Studies were grouped according to key themes such as climate change, water availability and access, infrastructure challenges, governance, and climate adaptation strategies. Successively, findings were then analyzed to identify common patterns, regional differences, and the importance of water governance and infrastructure in influencing water security. Where applicable and relevant, statistical data from the included studies were combined to provide a clearer understanding and a holistic picture of the regional water security status.

Water availability is highly uneven in Southern Africa, with most of the region faced extreme dry climate, with precipitation anomalies and rising temperatures. Urban centers with better infrastructure, such as Cape Town in South Africa and Lusaka in Zambia, are facing resource overexploitation and strain, while rural areas in countries like Mozambique and Zimbabwe are struggling with drinking water challenges. For instance, Mozambique indicates access to improved water sources for only 45% of its rural population compared to 82% of the urban population (World Bank, 2022; AIM News, 2024). Similarly, most of the rural population in Zimbabwe also depends on unprotected sources, increasing vulnerability toward water-borne diseases (United Nations Development Programme, 2021). Such disparities in water supply, therefore, create a need for demands that the different urban and rural sectors allocate more water to meet their specific needs. This finding aligns with the works of Kusangaya et al. (2014) and Olivier and Marchand (2020), which document that rural areas have a predominantly insufficient and unreliable water supply. In contrast, urban areas are overwhelmed by population growth. Hence, policymakers have to prioritize infrastructure development in rural and peri-urban areas with a focus on sustainable water resources as well as improvement in the water distribution systems. Solar-powered pumps and rainwater harvesting are among immediate relief interventions that can be adopted. As shown in Figure 3, water access significantly varies between urban and rural areas in Southern Africa, with rural populations in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and South Africa facing greater challenges in accessing reliable water sources.

Infrastructure remains the major challenge for water security in Southern Africa, as it is a problem mainly in rural and peri-urban areas where basic water supply systems do not exist or are unreliable or poorly maintained. For example, Harare, in Zimbabwe, faces challenges with its aging water infrastructure because the city cannot keep up with demand driven by the increasing population (Tanyanyiwa and Kanyepi, 2021). Zambia is another country that has been facing challenges in securing sufficient support for infrastructure to keep up with its increasing population in the urban area, though efforts have been made to improve service coverage (World Bank, 2018; Olivier and Marchand, 2020). This fairly reflects and align with the Bertelsmann Stiftung (2024) findings regarding deficits in the region's water infrastructure. Largely, infrastructure maintenance is poor and investment is inadequate; hence, access to water cannot be reliable unless infrastructure is upgraded to increase coverage and reliability, as emphasized by the World Bank (2018). Governments, local authorities, and international organizations should work within a long-term investment plan targeting both system upgrades and the expansion of water supply infrastructure in underserved areas, accompanied by capacity building for local authority-owned and managed water systems, supported by public and private financing. Table 3 has summarized the infrastructure challenges across the Region.

Findings revealed that climate change in Southern Africa is punishingly exacerbating a grave situation concerning water scarcity through rainfall distribution and intensified evaporation accompanied by dry spells and floods. A strong, one of the largest recorded-2015–2016 El Niño brought extreme drought to Southern Africa, impacting agricultural hydrology dependent on rainfall significantly. Zambia experienced low hydroelectric capability due to decreased precipitation and low reservoir water levels, and Botswana faced dry conditions that affected their water supply systems and low lake levels (Siderius et al., 2018). Such incidents once again proved, with evidence now growing stronger, that this climatic zone happens to be extremely vulnerable when involved in climate-induced conflict regarding resources; therefore, adaptive management of water resources should take precedence (Gannon et al., 2018). The agricultural sector uses most of the available water resources; hence, Chipomho et al. (2024) argued about how complicated it is to predictively manage challenges in availability due to increased variability resulting from climate change. Governments must adopt climate-resilient water management policies, such as building water storage infrastructure to manage variable rainfall and investing in climate-smart irrigation systems. Water conservation measures should also be promoted through public awareness campaigns and incentivizing water-efficient technologies in both urban and rural areas. Table 4 presents the impact of climate change on water resources, particularly drought and shifting rainfall patterns.

Poor governance, institutional fragmentation, and inconsistent policy implementation have been noted as significant challenges in achieving successful water management. For example, in Zimbabwe, policies on water governance do exist; however, enforcement at community levels has been rated poorly due to political instability and corruption. This has led to several problems, including infrastructure in a state of disrepair and unequal access to water in many urban cities, such as Harare, which has an unreliable supply, among others. Such was noted by Tanyanyiwa and Kanyepi (2021) as well as Bertelsmann Stiftung (2024), who described how political instability and weak institutional capacity in Zimbabwe compound problems relating to issues of water management. Challenges of water governance in Zambia relate weakly to the coordination of national and local authorities. Patole (2015) and SADC-GMI (2025) noted that ineffective governance and poor coordination contribute much to problems related to access to water. Thus, there is a need for the strengthening of institutional frameworks at both the local and national levels. This can be achieved by capacity building of the institutions on water management at all levels of government and improving the coordination between these agencies, which should have a clear policy on water pricing, with tiered pricing promoting equity but encouraging conservation. Table 5 highlights the main challenges in governance and how they affect water security.

The central thematic factor in Southern Africa is thus equity of access, because, as noted, huge rural populations, plus marginalized groups—mostly women—face an acute water shortage. In most rural households, the burden of procuring water falls on women. This takes up a lot of their time, which could be used for other productive ventures, such as attending school or engaging in economic activities. These findings concur with those of Naiga et al. (2023) and Nhamo and Mutanda (2024), who also found that rural women are mainly responsible for fetching water, thereby increasing gender inequality. This type of inequality prevents women from engaging in other educational or income-generating activities by consuming time that would otherwise be available for them. For example, this problem is seen in Mozambique, where 80% of rural women are responsible for collecting water, while in Zimbabwe is 70% and in South Africa is 65% comparatively (UNICEF, 2023; Nhamo and Mutanda, 2024). These findings are consistent with Naiga et al. (2023). Collecting water in most rural areas is highly gendered as shown by the findings. The overwork placed on women amplifies existing gender inequalities. It reduces the time that women can use for productive economic and educational activities. Water governance policies must therefore, adopt a gender perspective and ensure the representation of women's voices in decision-making at all levels. Relatively, supporting women's roles in water collection and management, as well as community-based water management programs, is important for achieving water security and promoting gender equality. An integrated policy that tackles these inequalities promotes gender governance in the water sector. Also, community-based water management programs that support women's roles in water collection and management can aid to achieve both water security and gender equality. Social inequalities with a focus on rural, marginalized, and female-headed households in Southern Africa are summarized in Table 6.

The results reveal that Southern Africa suffers from water scarcity due to climatic factors. Prolonged drought, extreme weather events, and changes in rainfall patterns reduce agricultural output in the semi-arid regions of Namibia and Botswana. As Liu and Zhou (2021) noted for Namibia, reduced rainfall adversely affects smallholder agriculturalists. Botswana is more vulnerable to drought because it receives less rainfall, which is accompanied by high evaporation rates, leading to food insecurity. Three consecutive years of below-average rainfall had already brought dam levels to dangerously low levels long before what was termed Day Zero could occur in Cape Town, South Africa, as an example of the urban impacts of water shortages and a clear need for resilient management. Such includes adaptive strategies such as rainwater harvesting and efficient irrigation systems that governments should enforce, among many other climate-smart practices, to minimize farmers' vulnerability to the negative effects of droughts; specifically, promoting drip irrigation and rainwater harvesting together with soil moisture conservation integrated into farming practices. Such measures can help address water shortages and make food safer amid changing weather patterns. New methods for obtaining water can be used alongside conventional sources, helping build strength in areas with limited water. Table 7 lists exact climate dangers, the countries hit, and plans for how to adjust.

The issue of water governance thus easily falls within the gendered contours as per these findings in Southern Africa. Rural women are mostly at the lower end of the water insecurity spectrum. Since it is women who, in most cases, have to fetch water for the household, they do not find time to participate in educational and economic activities just like their male counterparts. The findings suggested that empowering women in water governance leadership would make it more sustainable and effective. Nhamo and Mutanda (2024) and Naiga et al. (2023), share the same sentiments, by stating that female inclusion leads to equity and sustainability in water governance. Also, fetching water is often a time-consuming task for women and girls, as reported by UNICEF (2023). A concerted effort should be made to involve women in water governance at all levels and aspects of decision-making. Policies should also consider gender-responsive budgeting so that the policy on water access is inclusive and equitable. Table 8 provides summation on: gender disparities in water collection tasks, particularly in rural areas. Followed by Table 9, which presents a summary of the key findings and themes of the study.