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dam-l Water article/LS
This is an article by Saliem Fakir of IUCN. An edited version of this
appears in the latest Land and Rural
>Digest.
>Saliem Fakir
>IUCN South Africa
>PO Box 11536, Hatfield, 0028
>Tel (27-12)-420-4115/6,
>Fax (27-12)-420 3917
>
>
>Finding future water in Southern Africa: Avoiding Conflict and War
>
>Saliem Fakir (Country Programme Co-ordinator, IUCN (World Conservation
>Union)
>
>Introduction
>
>A few weeks ago it was world water day, and this should serve us all a
>reminder that we are not a country and a region that is richly endowed with
>a abundance of water supply. For instance the average rainfall in the region
>varies from 250mm to 968 mm per year, with Namibia receiving the lowest
>rainfall. Contrary to popular misconception, Southern Africa is an arid to
>semi-arid region, with the current situation best described as water scarce
>and being water stressed in about 30 years time as economies and population
>size grows. Countries in the region share many water ways and resources
>creating the potential for possible conflicts and tensions in the future.
>If, anything, crisis over water is the single most important factor likely
>to lead to political strife and possibly war. The region is also prone to
>recurrent droughts, and exposure to high temperature ranges causing rapid
>evaporation of water.
>
>Demand for water from agriculture, industry and domestic use is expected to
>come under increased competition as population numbers rise and economies
>increase in size. In addition, many countries are also concerned about
>maintaining ecological functions which are not adequately met under current
>systems of water management and allocation. With increased demands, and
>limited supply potential within countries, countries are forced to seek
>other sources of supply outside their borders and at great cost. Conflicts
>are inevitable given that most of the river systems in the region are
>already utilised and are inter-connected ignoring political boundaries.
>Disputes have already taken place between Botswana and Namibia over
>abstraction of water from the Etosha or Okavango.
>
>Water like land in the region is also a politically sensitive issue. In
>South Africa for instance, at least about 60% of water is in the control of
>private hands. Water is also subject to socio-political debates about access
>and rights of use, which in the region are widespread given the inequities
>that are prevalent. This is also in the context where dam building globally
>has come under scrutiny leading to the creation of the World Dams Commission
>whose task is to identify the development effectiveness of dams and in so
>doing produce guidelines and make recommendations on alternative approaches
>and best practise.
>
>Recently, the World Water Council, has launched a global initiative in
>creating a World Water Vision as it felt that governments were not giving
>water issues enough attention. The development of such a global vision would
>be in time for discussion and adoption at the 2nd World Water Forum to be
>held in March 2000 in the Hague. It is hoped that through this process
>greater awareness will be created amongst politicians and other decision
>makers.
>
>How is water demand met?
>
>The demand for water has traditionally been met by the building of large
>dams and reservoirs, or countries which have limited sources of water
>generally import water from other countries through inter-basin transfers.
>For example the Lesotho Highland Water Scheme draws water from the source of
>the Orange River and transfers it to the Vaal River Basin. This project
>alone cost US$700 million indicating the kind of capital cost that can be
>incurred in acquiring new sources of water.
>
>The scope for being able to do more of these kinds of developments in the
>future is limited, as building dams and undertaking inter-basin transfers is
>expensive, they often involve social conflicts, and the ability to dam more
>water in the future physically is also not feasible as most of the options
>have already been explored.
>
>While conventional approaches to securing water have been fairly successful,
>they only focused on supply, and did not take into account adequately
>increased competition for water and the way in which water was consumed by
>users of the resource. More importantly, the supply of water operated in a
>context, where water tended, and is still the case, to be subsidised to the
>user. So that users never really paid the true cost of water, like the cost
>of actually supplying water to one’s tap, its economic value, and its
>environmental value. For instance the, the agricultural sector, which in the
>region consumes about 50% or more of the total available water, pays very
>little for water. Experts argue that the subsidisation of water, where its
>true cost is not reflected, has led to abuse of water, and the lack of
>responsibility and care for water wastage by users.
>
>What are the alternatives
>
>One possible alternative is the application of what is called water demand
>management (WDM). Experts argue that if water demand is applied properly the
>cost of building new dams can be defrayed or delayed. In South Africa, the
>Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Prof Kader Asmal, for instance is
>delaying the building of a the Skuifraam Dam in Cape Town, until the Cape
>Town local authority has demonstrated that it can institute a water demand
>management programme. This is probably the first time in the world that a
>decision to build a new dam is pending on the successful implementation of a
>WDM programme.
>
>Demand management is the application of various approaches to influence and
>change the way in which water is consumed and used. In other words, demand
>management is concerned with the way in which water is conserved and used
>efficiently. From the conservation angle, this would require investment in
>fixing leaks, introducing new shower caps so that water is used sparingly or
>passing regulations to limit the hours in which one can water gardens or ban
>the use of hoses for car washing.
>
>Over the last three years or so, if you received a bill from your local
>municipality then you will notice that if you consume water above a certain
>limit then the prices are likely to double or triple. Measures such as these
>are referred to as water pricing or block tarification which are also used
>as demand management instruments. All of this is part of water demand
>management strategies.
>
>While the major part of water demand management may concern itself with
>conservation and increasingly the flow of water as a result, an important
>area that is often neglected is the productive use of water itself. So what
>if more water flows through our taps, and we block all leaks, but what is
>the maximum economic return that one can gain from the use of the water in
>the future? In other-words, what is the optimum economic return that one can
>derive from the use of a scarce resource
>
>This is particularly so in sectors such as agriculture. The agricultural
>sector is often accused of using water inefficiently because it is
>subsidised by governments in the region. It is thought by economist that by
>changing the price of water farmers will be forced to introduce water saving
>measures, but more importantly shift to planting higher value crops in areas
>that are more suitable for agriculture. Water demand in this case would also
>have environmental benefits in the long-term as it will ensure more
>sustainable uses of agricultural resources. For example, there is a debate
>in South Africa as to whether South Africa should be growing crops like
>maize or wheat, when some countries in the SADC region, because of soil
>fertility and high rainfall, are better suited to grow these more cheaply.
>This is often referred to as the virtual water debate.
>
>Demand management has been practised eslewhere in the region and in South
>Africa. To examine the possibility of introducing water demand management
>approaches on a wider scale in the region, the IUCN (World Conservation
>Union) conducted a 18 month policy study in 5 countries, viz: Zimbabwe,
>Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique. The study was funded by the
>Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). The studies revealed
>clearly that there is a great scope for the application of water demand
>management in the region, but it requires political will and commitment from
>government. Most of these have occurred as individual projects, or pilot
>studies, and not as part of a comprehensive approach to water resources
>management. The findings have been also been produced as a synthesis paper
>by the IUCN South Africa and can be made available to readers on request.
>
>To demonstrate the benefits of WDM drawing from existing examples would be
>useful. After the 1992 droughts, the city of Windhoek put in place demand
>management practises. The results were significant. The Windhoek
>municipality managed to reduce consumption by 30-50% from 1992 onwards. In
>South Africa, similar successes were reported for the Greater Hermanus area
>where the first comprehensive demand management strategy was applied
>consumption was reduced by 16.5% in the first 12 months. In demonstrating
>such successes both local authorities have also shown major cost savings.
>
>Legal transformation of water law is taking place and already provides a
>good basis for changing both attitudes and approaches to managing water in
>Southern Africa. However, to make demand management an integral part of
>water resources management in Southern Africa, demand management has to be
>applied at a national scale. South Africa is one of the few countries in the
>region which has developed a comprehensive strategy for WDM. But, other
>countries like Zimbabwe and Botswana are undertaking similar initiatives
>through their national Water Resources Management Strategy and National
>Water Master Plan respectively.
>
>There are certain constraints to the extensive implementation of demand
>management in Southern Africa as it is still viewed with cynicism in some
>quarters. There are a number of reasons for this:
>
>? WDM is perceived by opponents to be driven by environmentalist and
>conservationist and not engineers. There is a need to change the mindset as
>water resource management is dominated by the interest of large engineering
>companies who constantly push governments to build dams rather than look at
>alternatives.
>
>? Secondly, where water services have been privatized, water demand may
>imply the possible loss of revenue to private companies running and managing
>these services in urban areas so there is no real profit incentive which can
>persuade companies to do otherwise.
>
>? Thirdly, local governments may not have the right incentives and
>structure to apply demand management, as financial savings flow into the
>general local government pool and cannot be reused to invest in further
>demand management work.
>
>? Fourthly, water demand in urban areas requires substantial initial
>investment in metering, monitoring of meters, and the installation of
>expense water saving devices. The availability of these initial capital cost
>can delay the implementation of WDM approaches. This coupled with the
>widespread culture of non-payment, makes it all the more difficult for
>financially squeezed local governments to implement such a programme in the
>short-term.
>
>? Fifthly, demand management requires a combination of strategies like
>policy change, legal reform, educational programmes, the availability of
>technology and expertise to mount a comprehensive approach. Most countries
>in the region, for example if we take Mozambique as a case in point, lack
>resources so implementation will take longer than usual.
>
>What are the possibilities for the future?
>
>As the IUCN study has shown, that resource poor countries such as Mozambique
>which cannot afford to build more dams will have to consider alternatives.
>With the advent of drought in 1992, the application of WDM measures in the
>region were shown to be very successful. The sectors where it has been most
>successful have been in urban domestic use and industry. Agriculture and
>rural domestic use continue to be a challenge as these require investment in
>metering infrastructure, and in agriculture in particular, there is likely
>to be stiff resistance from farmers which have benefited from the cheap
>supply of water. Management of ground water under a WDM regime poses also
>many challenges. Ground water management poses unique challenges in the
>region as much of the ground water sources and availability have not been
>comprehensively mapped in the various SADC States.
>
>However, the key factor is to get region wide political support which does
>not exist at the moment. In SADC, water resource management is being dealt
>with by the inter-governmental structure called the SADC Water Co-ordinating
>Sector Unit. This unit was set up recently, in 1996, to oversee the
>implementation of integrated water resource management in the region. It
>remains a key instrument for promoting the adoption of WDM strategies in the
>region as a whole.
>
>To conclude then, at a recent SIDA/IDRC funded conference on water demand
>management which was hosted by the IUCN, Prof Kader, who gave the keynote
>address, aptly pointed out that “…success in our use of water will be
>determined by the success with which we manage to live together. It is in
>the nature of things that we may be able to use water to lead the way in our
>relationships”. Perhaps, water demand management will be one of the key
>instruments by which the region is able to avert any future water crisis and
>potential conflict in between sovereign States in Southern Africa.
>
>*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
>Liane Greeff, Project Manager: NGO Liaison with, and Monitoring of the WCD
>Environmental Monitoring Group, PO Box 18977, Wynberg, South Africa, 7824
>E-mail: liane@kingsley.co.za Tel: +27 +21 7610549/788 2473 Fax: 762 2238
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