1. Transboundary River Basin Cooperation:
Reflections from the Orange - Senqu River Commission
3RD Orange River Symposium,
9th June 2011,
Bloemfontein
By Leshoboro ‘Nena– Technical Task Team

2. Structure of Presentation
Basin Profile
Geographical Location
Rainfall Distribution
Runoff Distribution
Water Uses
Economic Benefits from Water
Water Resources Management Challenges
Institutional arrangements
Bilateral Organizations/Agreements
Establishment of ORASECOM
Programme & Delivery
Recent Study Areas
Lessons Learnt

3. Basin Profile - Summary
Basin Area : 1 million sq km.
Rainfall : 1800mm in Lesotho highlands to 45mm at River mouth.
Population: 19 million (Earle et al. 2004).
Average annual natural runoff : 12,000 mill. cub. metres - less than half of the flow reaches the river mouth on the Atlantic Ocean.
Basin States: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa.
Basin Profile - Summary

4. Basin Profile – Geographical Location
Orange Senqu River Basin

5. Basin Profile - Rainfall Across the Basin
Can be used as an alternative to the previous slide if presenters prefer it.

6. Basin Profile - Mean Annual Runoff – Main Subcatchments

7. Basin Profile
Orange-Senqu River sources in highlands of Lesotho at around 3000 metres above mean sea level (alpine wetlands “sponges”) – very important for sustaining flows especially in dry season and during drought periods.

8. Basin Profile
Infrastructure development enables transfer of water from the highland source areas (Katse dam, Mohale dam etc.) to water scarce regional economic hub (Gauteng).

9. Basin Profile
Dry river bed on Molopo catchment - north west part of the Orange Senqu
4/16/2019

10. Basin Profile
Commercial Irrigation and Hydropower generation are some of the main developments in the river basin.
4/16/2019

11. Basin Profile
The River Mouth along the border between Namibia and South Africa has been declared a Ramsar Site on both sides of the border.
4/16/2019

12. Basin Profile
Alluvial diamond mining operations are also found on the lower Orange-Senqu, the estuary and along shallow sea bed of the Atlantic Ocean.

13. Basin Profile
It is important to note that the water demands indicated on this slide exclude environmental water demands – these have not yet been quantified for the whole basin, but will impact on the amount of water available for economic use once they have been determined and apportioned.

14. Demand in the Orange-Senqu River Basin
Basin Profile
Demand in the Orange-Senqu River Basin
ORS Gross Demand 2005

15. Location of major water uses
Basin Profile
Location of major water uses

16. Basin Profile
Sasol Petrochemical Plant Secunda
Produces >30% of SA’s Petrol/Diesel from coal

17. Basin Profile
Sishen Iron Ore Mine (open pit excavation)

18. Basin Profile
Export grapes Aussenkehr - Namibia
Thank You

19. Basin Profile System of Water Transfers to address Demand
4/16/2019

20. Basin Profile - Economic benefits from water
Average Rands GDP/m3 used (2000)
Agriculture: R3.20 (irrigation only) – R16.80 (including livestock
Mining: R7.60 – R163.40
Manufacturing and services: R – R730.00
Lesotho
royalties from LHWP average M340 M p.a
‘Muela hydropower generates electricity for Lesotho.
The Vaal River basin produces
>50% of South African GDP
>80% of South African electricity
There are important deposits of alluvial diamonds around the river mouth.

21. Water Resource Management Challenges
Water Scarcity.
Extensive development which has impacted on the hydrological regime of the system.
Poor land management practices on parts of the riparian catchment.
Deterioration of water quality.
Stakeholder participation in management of river system due to assymetry in capacity and access to information.
Limited processed data for basin-scale planning and management.

22. Institutional Arrangements
2000
Permanent Water
Commission & Joint
Irrigation Authority
1992
Joint Technical Commission
1987
Joint Permanent Technical Committee
1983
Joint Technical Committee
1978
Joint Permanent Technical Commission
1986
Joint Permanent Water Committee
1990
Lesotho Highlands
Water Commission
1999
1975
2010
Botswana
Institutional Arrangements
History of Trans-boundary Cooperation in the Orange-Senqu Basin
Lesotho
Namibia
South Africa

23. Institutional Arrangements Establishment and Purpose
ORASECOM agreement was signed on 3rd November 2000 by Republic of Botswana, Kingdom of Lesotho, Republic of Namibia and Republic of South Africa
Commission was established to advise Parties on matters related to development, utilisation and conservation of the water resources in the River system.
Areas of Advise include:
determination of yield;
equitable and reasonable utilisation of water resources;
investigations and studies on development of the river system;
stakeholder participation, harmonisation of policies and impact of water resources development on social, cultural, economic and natural environment;
standardised form of collection, processing and dissemination of data and information;

24. Institutional Arrangements
Purpose (cont.)
prevention of pollution and control of aquatic weeds;
contingency plans for responding to emergencies resulting from natural causes such as droughts, floods and industrial accidents;
exchange of information and consultations on possible effects of planned measures.
measures with a view to arriving at settlement of dispute between two or more of the Parties.
any other matters as may be determined by the Parties.

25. Institutional Arrangements ORASECOM Institutional Structure
Task Teams: technical, legal, communications, finance and hydrogeology.

26. Institutional Arrangements - Institutional Operations
Ministers meet once a year to direct the Commission and review overall programme of work.
Senior Officials meet once a year to consider Commission work programme, budget and prepare submission to Ministers.
Council meets twice a year to review and discuss progress on programme of work and budget; discuss bilateral cooperation projects; and exchange information on national development projects of transboundary significance.
Task Teams meet at least twice a year to discuss respective activities of the Commission and prepare technical updates for Council.
Secretariat oversees implementation of Commission programme of work and is the corporate arm of the Commission.
Currently Secretariat core staff comprises Executive Secretary, Water Resources Specialist, Finance and Administration, Administration Assistant.
Projects of ORASECOM currently delivered through consultancies and medium/short term specialists at Secretariat.

27. Programme Delivery
Identification of key programmatic areas clustured into six thematic areas:
Theme 1. Institutional and Organizational Strengthening.
Theme 2. Specific Capacity Building on Shared Watercourses Management.
Theme 3. Development of Shared Information System.
Theme 4. Enhancing ORASECOM Communication and Awareness Building.
Theme 5. Specific Transboundary Projects and Studies.
Theme 6. Promotion of Conservation and Environmental Strategies and Policies

28. Programme Delivery
Setting target for consolidating basin wide IWRM Plan by 2012.
Communication, awarenes and training initiatives including the River Awareness Kit, Website, Preliminary Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), training courses and exchange visits.
Joint Basin Survey.
Identifying strategic partners to share best practices (e.g International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River) and to participate in delivery of components of the programme (Sasol ).
Joint programme coordination including cooperating partners and programme leaders.

29. Programme Delivery 2000-2012 (and beyond) Delivery Schematic
Institutional establishment
Institutional
Situation Assessment
Specific Studies
Common understanding
Future scenarios
Future Development Scenarios
Management Response Options
Strategy formulation
Basin-wide Strategy
Sub-basin Planning
Implementation
Monitoring & Review
Implementation

30. Recent Study Areas Water Resources Modelling
Main activities undertaken:-
Assessment of strengths and weaknesses of existing models.
Extension and expansion of the existing models.
Establishment of a basin scale water resource yield and planning models.
Capacity building on the use of the model.

31. Recent Study Areas Climate Change
Main activities undertaken:-
Downscaling of global climate models to Orange-Senqu Basin level to reveal nature, extent and spatial coherence of climate change in the basin;
Assessment of Impacts and recommendation of adaptation measures/strategies

32. Recent Study Areas Environmental Flow Requirements
Assessment of environmental flow requirements at selected key areas of the basin at an intermediate level
A scoping level assessment of ecological and socio-cultural condition and importance across the basin.
Delineation into Management Resource Units and selection of EFR sites.
Assessment of the Present Ecological State and other ecological state scenarios.
Assessment of the ecosystem services, also referred to as Goods and Services .

33. Recent Study Areas Irrigation Water Conservation/Demand Mngt.
To Attain an overall understanding of how better management practices could reduce water demand in the irrigation sector in the basin and To make recommendations on improved water demand management in this sector in the future.

34. THE ORANGE-SENQU JOINT BASELINE SURVEY
Recent Study Areas
THE ORANGE-SENQU JOINT BASELINE SURVEY
Main purpose was to obtain overview of water resources quality of the basin:
Three main components:-
Aquatic Ecosystem Health – Assessment of all components of aquatic ecosystem health, as well as the impacts on aquatic ecosystems.
Persistent Organic Pollutants and Metals – included analyses of both the water and sediment fractions.
An inter-laboratory calibration exercise and macro-ions – included benchmarking among laboratories in the Basin.
Public events.
Plan is to undertake JBS once every 5 years.

35. 52 sites based on ecoregions and key sub-catchments
SAMPLING SITES
52 sites based on ecoregions and key sub-catchments
6-8 additional sites (groundwater)

36. Lessons Learnt
Shared appreciation of common issues and challenges foster cooperation;
Ownership and commitment are essential at both political level and technical level; and financial support from own sources is key to institutional sustainability and programme development;
Programme and partner coordination is essential to ensure focused delivery and enhance synergy among complementary initiatives;
Institutional and programme growth should be driven by basin States within their collective capacities.

37. Thank you. www.orasecom.org Thank you. www.orasecom.org
4/16/2019