The Permanent Okavango River

Basin Water Commission

(OKACOM)GEO- UNESCO Joint Workshop on Earth Observation

and Capacity Development for IWRM at River Basins in

Africa

Nairobi , Kenya, January 2012

Tracy S. Molefi

OKACOM –OBSC

tsmolefi@gmail.com /trsmolefi@gov.bw

Presentation Outline

•Basin Facts

•Institutional Framework

•Challenges and Issues

•Responses from OKACOM’s Strategic

Action Programme

Basin Facts• Transcends 3 countries – Angola

48%, Namibia 37% Botswana 15%

and of basin territory

• Angola 94.5% total run-off in

catchment, Namibia 2.9%,

Botswana 2.6%

• Hydrologically active area of

approximately 323 192 km

• 1,100 km length

• 10 cubic kilometers of surface

water flow to the delta per annum

• Catchment 413,550 km2

• Home to 1,113,000 people

Use of Water in the Basin

•Subsistence agriculture

•Tourism based activities

•Domestic water supply

•Fisheries

•Ecosystems services

•Limited irrigated agriculture

The Commission

• Established in 1994 by the Windhoek Agreement

• Three countries –Angola, Botswana and Namibia

•Acts as a technical advisor to the contracting Parties on

matters related to conservation , development and utilization of

the water resources of common interest in the Okavango

•Secretariat based in Maun, Botswana

OKACOM COMMISSION3 Commissioners per countryAngola, Botswana & Namibia

Okavango Basin Steering Committee(OBSC)

Angola, Botswana & Namibia

Institutional Task Force

Biodiversity Task Force

Hydrology Task Force

OKACOM Secretariat

Seconded Technical Staff

Angola, Botswana & Namibia

OKACOM Structure

Institutional Framework

1994 Agreement

2007 Agreement on Organizational Structure

2008 Permanent Secretariat established

2011 Rules and Procedures approved

2012 Institutional Functional Analysis for SAP

implementation (in progress)

EPSMO Project

Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis

•Objective understanding of status of basin resources

•Issues and trends

Strategic Action Programme (SAP)

• To assist framing of issue-responsive programmatic

interventions

• Basin Development Management Framework

National Action Plans NAPs)

The very first OKACOM commissioned project

•Multi-disciplinary and trans-country teams :

Angola, Botswana, Namibia

•Assisted by regional and international experts

•Consultation with local communities and

institutions

The Process : Transboundary

Diagnostic Analysis

The Process : Integrated Flow

Assessment

Understanding of impacts of flow modification on

•Ecological dynamics

•Socio-economic and livelihood conditions

•Overall macro-economics of the basin

Scenario planning : 1, 2 and 3

Concept of acceptable development space

•Negotiation tool for managing trade offs

Summary of expected changes in ecosystem health for the

Low, Medium and High Water-use Scenarios

TDA Areas of Concern and Drivers

driven by

•population dynamics

•land use change

•poverty

•climate change

•variation and reduction of hydrological flow

•changes in sediment dynamics

•changes in water quality

•changes in the abundance and distribution of biota

Issues (TDA Findings)•Placement of abstraction and impoundments will greatly influence flow

variability

•Certain HEP and land use developments will impact sediment transport, which

is unique and important especially for Delta

•Increased Irrigated agriculture poses the greatest challenge

•The planned run-of-river HEP (micro HEP) plans which have little impact on

flow but can affect sediment : no site for major dams

•The two main tributaries (Cuito & Cubango) serve complementary hydrological

functions (development on one can be mitigated by other)

Issues (TDA Findings)

•Water Supply &Sanitation is unlikely to have a significant impact, people will

Angola will rely on direct use for some years

•Distribution of current economic benefits of the river is skewed downstream

•Benefits of future water resources development will start to accrue upstream but

the indirect costs of development will be paid mostly downstream.

•OKACOM has the potential to arrange benefit sharing mechanisms exploiting

significant comparative advantages (i.e. tourism vs. irrigation) and is ideally

situated to drive reform and manage

Challenges

1. Integrated and Coordinated Water

Resources Development and Management

• Inadequate water infrastructure for achieving regional

economic development eg. energy and food security

• Inadequate financing of water resources development and

management.

• Low access to water supply and sanitation

Challenges

2. Environmental Management and Sustainable Development

• Inadequate integrated and coordinated protection and sustainable

development and use of wetlands ( e.g. no management plan for

the basin)

• Ecosystems and related ecological and economic functions in the

basin may be threatened by fragmented, uncoordinated and

unsustainable development.

• Deterioration of water quality due to localised pollution

• Proliferation of invasive aquatic species

Challenges

3. Basin wide Cooperation and Integration

• Limited capacity of national and regional water management institutions

to perform river basin management tasks

• Inadequate water resources knowledge base for basin wide planning,

development and management

• Inadequate effective stakeholder participation in basin resources

development and management.

Challenges

4. Adaptation to Climate Variability and

Change

• Insufficient data and information for adequate climate change

predictions

• Difficulties in managing uncertainties associated with climate

prediction models

• Extreme variability and uneven distribution of rainfall is likely to

be amplified by climate change

• Inadequate of integrated management of extreme events ( flood

and drought ) in development planning

• Inadequate coping mechanisms for climate variability and

change

Current Use of Data in Decision

Making in the Basin

Water-related decisions made on an

annual basis

•For OKACOM, efforts defining

acceptable development space first

steps

Data and models used in making

these decisions

•A variety of systems and models are

being tested, e.g. WEAP

Difficulties encountered in using

these data and models

•Data collection and reporting in the

remote areas of the Angolan portion

of the Basin

Coping with data needs and services

for special events such as floods and

droughts

•Hydrological Data Sharing Protocol

an effort to share and consolidate

data for planning

Basin Plans to Sustainable

Development and a Green Economy

Strategic Action Programme

basin-wide policy framework document for the Cubango-

Okavango river that lays down the principles for

development of the basin and improvements of livelihoods

of its people through cooperative management of the basin

and its shared natural resources

The SAP’s Basin Development and

Management Framework (BDMF)

Vision

Acceptable Development Space

flexible management approaches

scientific and economic analysis

adaptive response (changes socio-

economic and environmental conditions

Thematic Area 1: Livelihoods and Socio-economic

Development

Thematic Area 2: Water Resources Management

Thematic Area 3: Land Management

Thematic Area 4: Environment and Biodiversity

Thematic Areas for SAP

SAP Logframe

Road Map for SAP Endorsement

Areas of Support/Collaboration

Mainly SAP/NAP Implementation

Climate Change Scenarios in water resource

management

Multi-sector investment opportunity analysis

Capacity building- institutional strengthening

Information, data management and sharing (

implementation mechanism)

Projects for livelihood and socio-economic

development

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