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WRC research and knowledge can enable science-based water policies

WATER SUSTAINABILITY
Unscientific policies and decisions can negatively impact on South Africa’s future water management capabilities

WATER SUSTAINABILITY Unscientific policies and decisions can negatively impact on South Africa’s future water management capabilities

25th July 2014

By: Schalk Burger

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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An improved and formalised interface between the policymakers in water resources and research organisations such as the Water Research Commission (WRC) can enable the government to use the long-term and continuous research done by the WRC and its partners to generate science-based policies, says WRC research manager Wandile Nomquphu.

Currently, some of the policies and decisions, such as building a dam based on short, discontinuous and poor hydrology records, are in stark contrast to the results of scientific research and these policies can negatively impact on South Africa’s future water management capabilities.

“The effective and sustainable management of South Africa’s water resources requires continuous hydrological monitoring and evalu-ation to correctly assess and quantify both natural and anthropogenic changes and their potential impacts on water resources. The results from the scientific assessments should inform management interventions, decision-making and policies.

“The WRC’s mandate is to generate detailed, scientific hydrology information to inform policymakers, but despite this information being available to the decision-makers, there seems to be limited and fragmented use of this information during policy formulation,” says Nomquphu.

Further, the research projects the WRC is involved in are also perfect training grounds for producing knowledgeable and skilled water resources professionals for the various departments whose decisions impact on water resources and water resource management.

“While we interact with many individuals of various municipalities and provincial and national departments, there seems to be no formal, structured interaction between the relevant departments and hydrology research organisations such as the WRC to ensure the sustainability of a water resource policy, water allocation and use in future.”

Nomquphu suggests that a formal clearing-house and repository for hydrology information, similar to the now defunct Department of Water Affairs’ Hydrology Research Institute, be created as a semi-independent organisation to collect, collate and manage the country’s water information.

Such an institute could act as an authority on South Africa’s hydrology matters and serve as an interface between research (knowledge generation) and knowledge application. It would enable policymakers to access the latest research and contextualised historical information on water demand and the water resource patterns of South Africa.

“More than 60% of South Africa is considered desert or desertlike with a nonlinear relationship between rainfall and runoff  (surface water), where only 9%, or less, of precipitation becomes runoff. Research has established that only 2% of our water resources remains unallocated and yet demand for this finite resource is growing.

“Therefore, any unscientific water resource management represents a significant threat to the sustainable growth of the country.”

The country has not had a serious widespread drought since 1991, the effects and impacts of which lasted five years after the drought had ended, and this necessitates the establishment of strong, science-based decision-making support tools as soon as possible.

“Further, the complexity of South Africa’s hydrology as well as water resource management systems, which include a complex system of water transfer schemes, thousands of kilometres of pipelines and hundreds of dams, makes policy formulation very complex.

“These factors also make impacts difficult to assess, but also much more critical, which must, thus, be based on scientifically sound information,” highlights Nomquphu.

A semi-independent hydrology information organisation can ensure that the quality of hydrology data remains high and can generate interactive models and tools so that government departments can model the impact of  its deci-sions on the scientific data gathered over a long-term period.

A formal interface between the country’s hydrology researchers and government depart-ments will also boost the number of South African hydrologists by combining the internal skills development initiatives of departments with critically important and continuous field research sup-ported by the WRC and its partners, concludes Nomquphu.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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