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dam-l Water Conservation and Demand Management/LS
Another submission to the World Commission on Dams.
Submission to the World Commission on Dams
Regional Consultation for Africa and the Middle East
Cairo, Egypt
8-9 December, 1999
Theme 4: Dams and Water Resource Management: Reviewing Alternate Options
Water Conservation and Demand Management Potential in Southern Africa:
An Untapped River
by Steve Rothert, International Rivers Network - Botswana
Southern Africa is a water scarce region where water is distributed
unevenly in time and space. With an increasing population and its
legitimate demand for an improved standard of living, requiring increased
economic development and agricultural production, the region faces an
enormous challenge in how to allocate, use and protect this limited
resource. In addition, the region is affected by recurrent droughts and
occasional floods which further aggravates the situation. These
circumstances demand novel approaches to achieve the sustainable use of
water for the benefit of the population and environment in the region.
Nearly half of southern Africa's 170 million people do not have access to
safe water and sanitation services. As the region's population continues
to expand by 3 percent annually, it will become increasingly difficult to
meet growing needs and redress current inequities. At the same time the
cost of developing new water supplies is increasing rapidly. Water
management in the region to date has concentrated on increasing supplies
through dams and other infrastructure without paying adequate attention to
conservation and demand management, prevention of water pollution and the
need for water to maintain healthy ecosystems. It is obvious there is a
need for a new approach in Southern Africa, one that recognises the scarce
nature of water in the region and focuses on using what is available as
effectively as possible before searching for new supplies.
Water conservation and demand management (WC/DM) holds tremendous potential
to help the region to meet its water needs. Urban and agricultural water
use in southern Africa is highly inefficient. In South Africa, for
example, it is estimated that nearly half of urban water is wasted through
water loss or inefficiency. Similarly, irrigation in Southern Africa,
which represents 69 percent of total consumption, is estimated to be less
than 50 percent efficient. If irrigation practices could be made only 10
percent more efficient across the region, 2.5 billion cubic meters would be
saved each year. If urban water use across the region could be made only
10 percent more efficient, more than 600 million cubic meters would be
saved each year Together these savings would provide enough water to supply
every person in the region who is currently unserved by water services with
more than 100 litres per day. Clearly, effective implementation of water
conservation and demand management practices could go a long way toward
solving the region's water troubles.
Very few WC/DM measures have been implemented in southern Africa to date.
Research conducted for this report suggests that fewer than one-third of
the 40 million urban water users who are served by developed supply systems
are encouraged to use water efficiently by any measure other than
escalating block tariffs. Although this economic tool can be effective,
without other components of a comprehensive WC/DM campaign such as public
education it will have little effect. In the agricultural sector, nearly
half of all irrigated land is watered by highly inefficient flood
irrigation methods, while more efficient methods such as micro jet and drip
irrigation are applied on less than 10 percent of irrigated farmland. See
Table 1 below for summary of the status of WC/DM implementation in certain
southern African countries. [not available in text version]
In the past WC/DM initiatives have been considered only as strategies
associated with environmental or drought response which often led to
inefficient water supply planning. The key challenge for the WC/DM
approach is its integration into the water resource planning process.
Conclusions
* Southern Africa faces a serious water supply challenge
driven by scarce and unevenly distributed water resources, rapid population
growth and urbanisation, and imperatives of development and social equity.
* Water use in the urban and agricultural sectors is
generally highly inefficient, with waste/inefficiencies of up to 50 percent
and 60 percent respectively.
* Although the policy and legal framework for implementing
WC/DM has been established in many southern African countries, very few
measures have been put in place.
* Fewer than one-third of all urban water users are
encouraged to conserve water by any measure other than escalating block
tariffs, and only two cities in the entire region have implemented
comprehensive WC/DM programmes (the population of these two cities
represents less than one percent of the regional urban population).
* Flood irrigation, which achieves only 55 percent
efficiency, is used on more than half of all irrigated land in the region.
* An increase in efficiency of only 20 percent in urban and
agricultural water use would save 9000 million m3 each year - more than the
combined use of Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, and more than 10
times the combined yield of Katse and Mohale dams of the LHWP.
* Water "produced" through WC/DM can be 65 to 80 percent less
expensive than water developed through new infrastructure.
* Water providers in Gauteng could delay the construction of
the next water supply dam by 12 years through an effective WC/DM programme,
and save R2 billion/US$325 million each year.
Recommendations
* WC/DM principles should be integrated fully into water
supply planning, i.e., water potentially produced through increased
efficiency and decreased losses should be considered along side other
options at the beginning of supply planning processes.
* Water management entities should establish specific
targets/standards for water use efficiency and allowable loss for each
water sector and develop strategies to achieve those targets.
* Mechanisms for financing WC/DM approaches should be
developed, including traditional methods enjoyed by the dam building
industry as well as new innovative mechanisms.