UNDP/GEF - United Nations Development Programme/Global Environment Facility

Background

The Project will assist the Orange-Senqu riparian states to:

1. Identify the principal threats and root causes of the trans-boundary water resources of the Orange-Senqu River Transboundary Basin and
2. Develop and implement a sustainable programme of policy, legal and institutional reforms and investments to address these threats.

Competing water uses in the context of dwindling and uncertain future supplies is seen as the critical issue in the basin and will be a principal focus of project attention from the very outset. The Project will create synergies with and build upon a range of initiatives being undertaken by the countries themselves and those of bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors that have given priority to the Basin.

The long-term development/environmental goal of the project is the sustainable development of the Orange-Senqu River Basin enhanced through ecosystem-based, Integrated Water Resource Management approaches. The project objective is to improve the management of the Orange-Senqu River Transboundary Basin through the implementation of a sustainable programme of policy, legal and institutional reforms and investment options using the Trans-boundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) and Strategic Action Programme (SAP) process. In order to achieve this objective, the project will strengthen the capacity of ORASECOM, update the TDA, formulate a SAP and associated National Action Programmes (NAPs) as part of a wider regional IWRM plan, undertake a range of public involvement and awareness activities focusing on trans-boundary activities, and undertake demonstration projects that implement key aspects of the SAP.

Activities

The project will support the institutional strengthening of ORASECOM through development of an informational management system, establishment of a wider Orange–Senqu Water Resources and Environmental Programme (OSWREP), developing guidelines for water allocation, climate change scenarios to be applied in water resource planning, and transboundary EIA. During the development of the preliminary TDA, five priority transboundary problems were identified as affecting the Orange Senqu River Basin:

1. Stress on surface and groundwater resources,
2. Altered water flow regime,
3. Deteriorating water quality (surface and groundwater),
4. Land degradation and
5. Alien invasive species.

This project has finalised the TDA and is undertaking a number of gap filling activities related to these transboundary issues including: a review of the impacts of artisanal mining on the middle and lower Orange; an assessment of Persistent Organic Pollutants levels in the Orange Senqu basin; and a detailed yield assessment and demand forecast for the Orange Senqu basin for the next 25 years based on an agreed methodology. Climate change and biodiversity are identified as cross-cutting concerns and these issues will be highlighted and integrated throughout the project. The final TDA will serve as the scientific basis for development of an agreed programme of interventions for the introduction of eco-system based approaches throughout the basin under the framework of the SAP, itself a critical component of a wider IWRM being developed by ORASECOM. The SAP will incorporate a basin vision, water resource quality objectives, targets and interventions in the short and medium term to meet targets.

In parallel to SAP development, the project will implement three pilot projects which are developed based on three of the five priorities identified during the preliminary TDA development, namely, the setting of ecological flows; water demand and quality management in the irrigation sector; and land/range management. These pilots will demonstrate new techniques and methodologies in those critical SAP areas of concern.

This project has been designed in close collaboration with the Orange Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) and will form a part of the Orange Senqu Water Resource Environmental Programme. It has been developed in coordination with the other major ORASECOM donors, inter alia French GEF, BMZ/GtZ, European Union and InWEnt, to ensure maximum synergy and minimum overlap between supporting projects.

Deliverables

Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis