The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Chemonics to implement the Resilient Waters Program. The project documented in this website was a response to a Grant call from Resilient Waters that had as its overall goal “to build more resilient communities and ecosystems through improved management of transboundary natural resources”.
The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) was commissioned by the Resilient Waters Program to undertake a project titled: Environmental flows (e-flows) for the Limpopo River – building more resilient communities and ecosystems through improved management of transboundary natural resources. The study incorporated the PROBFLO method to determine e-flows and evaluate the risk of altered flows and non-flow variables to the ecosystem services in the Limpopo Basin. The project has resulted in two final reports including:
- Report 7: E-flows for the Limpopo River Basin: environmental flow determination
- Report 8: E-flows for the Limpopo River Basin: risk of altered flows to the ecosystem services.
- but also a number of supporting reports as presented in this website.
The situation of the Limpopo River Basin
The water resources of the Limpopo River are stressed, with present day flows substantially diminished when compared to the natural flows. There is thus an urgent need to establish sustainable resource management plans in the Limpopo Basin. Key to this is that an acceptable minimum (but varied) flow rate be established for the river that can be built into transboundary as well as national cooperation and management plans to secure the necessary ecosystems and ecosystem services that support local and distant communities.