Orange-Senqu River Commission Press Release: ORASECOM undertakes a Joint Basin Survey

Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) Press Release: 25/10/2010

“ORASECOM undertakes a Joint Basin Survey”

Water, especially in southern Africa, is our most precious natural resource. It is not only becoming increasingly limited as economies and populations grow, but rainfall is highly variable and unevenly spread across the region. Frequent droughts, often broken by severe flooding, have affected lives, slowed economic growth, and have posed significant challenges for water managers. Intensive use of limited water resources has affected water quality and has impacted on downstream river ecosystems. Climate change promises to further exacerbate these problems.

Tackling these challenges is even more demanding when water crosses borders. In these cases water managers in different countries need to work together to share water and maximise the benefits for all. We need increasingly close cooperation if we are to continue to grow our economies, address poverty and protect the environment. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has lead the way by providing a framework for countries sharing river systems to come together to address these challenges together.

The Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) was created to do just this.The organisation was established through an agreement between Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa – the four countries that share the basin, and is one of the first shared river basin institutions to be established under the Revised SADC Protocol on shared watercourses. This year ORASECOM celebrates a decade of collaboration and cooperation.

The ORASECOM Agreement signed on 3 November 2000 tasks the Commission with advising these countries on the development, use and conservation of the water resources of the Orange-Senqu River System. To do this ORASECOM has, over the last 10 years focussed its attention on building a common understanding of the state of the system, understanding the key factors impacting on the system and on developing the tools that will help us develop a joint Basin Wide Plan for the system by 2012. This Joint Basin Survey continues this spirit of cooperation, and is the first joint survey of the state of the whole system supported by all the Member States. The survey includes sampling and analysing for a range of key substances, as well as ecosystem health at about 50 – 60 sites throughout the basin.

The Joint Basin Survey will include public events at five sites throughout the basin. The first of these events will be held at Parys, in South Africa on 29 October 2010. The Parys site is particularly relevant for this survey as it lies just downstream of the largest economic centre in Africa. Gauteng’s economy represents about 60% of the South African economy as a whole, and is highly dependent on the waters of the Orange-Senqu River System. Water is transferred from Lesotho to meet industrial, urban and mining demands in this part of the system. This has knock on benefits for the whole region.

Unfortunately this intensive use of water, coupled with the need to treat and return this water to the rivers for use further downstream has impacted on the Vaal River System. This Joint Basin Survey will help us understand and quantify these impacts, and will serve as a baseline against which all the countries that share the basin can measure progress with management of the system.

• To find out more about the River System, its history and key challenges visit the ORASECOM website

• If you would like to know more about the Joint Basin Survey please contact Mr Rapule Pule, pule2r@dwa.gov.za, or Mr Gavin Quibell, quibellg@dwa.gov.za.

• The public event in Parys will be held at Khaya iBhubesi Lodge, from 9am to 1pm, with speeches by local dignitaries and ORASECOM Commissioners. There will be an afternoon session training local school children on how to assess aquatic ecosystem health.