Development and Adoption of a Strategic Action Program for Balancing Water Uses and Sustainable Natural Resource Management in the Orange-Senqu River Transboundary Basin

INDICATOR#2 Water use efficiency improved at the transboundary pilot sites and best practices in irrigation water usage developed: A water management plan will address the pertinent issues at the catchment level, at the level of the water user association best management practices in metering, scheduling, and tariffing and water trading will be explored. At the level of individual farms metering, water use efficiency and crop enhancement are implemented. Lessons learnt shall inform a replicability strategy for the basin

INDICATOR#1 Soil erosion reduced at the pilot sites, self-governance lessons and best practices for improved land/range management established. The formation of community based governance structures to improve land/range management with clear linkages to water resource management which can be used as models for replication in the OS basin and further afield.

The Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) was formalized by the Governments of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa through the signing of the ‘Agreement for the Establishment of the Orange-Senqu Commission’ on November 3rd, 2000 in Windhoek, Namibia (Earle et al, 2005).

INDICATOR#2 Transboundary EA Guidelines prepared and agreed: Transboundary EA Guidelines drafted and agreed by ORASECOM. This includes including a listing of type and size of projects to which these guidelines shall be applicable. ORASECOM is the first commission to be established following the regional ratification of the SADC Protocol on Shared Water Course Systems. The Agreement refers to, and recognizes the following agreements: Helsinki Rules (1966) UN Convention on Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses (1997) The SADC Revised Protocol on Shared Watercourse Systems (2000)

The Preliminary TDA highlighted three thematic areas for practical research and action on the ground. Scoping studies on water resources management issues in the irrigation sector (the largest water user in the basin), the setting of environmental flow requirements, as well as on overcoming land degradation through community-based management approaches have been completed. Consultations with the affected communities at grassroot level have been conducted. The implementation of practical measures on the ground is now starting.

SAP Endorsed in 2014 The Orange–Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) was established by the governments of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa to advise them on water-related issues towards promoting equitable and sustainable development and management of the resources of the Orange–Senqu River basin. ORASECOM and its four basin states have been supported by a United Nations Development Programme–Global Environmental Facility (UNDP–GEF) programme in the development of a basin-wide Strategic Action Programme (SAP) and an Action Plan for each basin country to address a variety of identified waterrelated environmental concerns. The SAP is a negotiated document that provides a basin-wide framework for the implementation of a prioritised set of national and joint transboundary actions and investments. In the context of the Orange–Senqu River Basin Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Plan, the SAP is specifically focused on addressing priority environmental concerns. At national level, the SAP initiatives are integrated into the respective Action Plan of each basin state. The SAP is based on an assessment of the priority environmental concerns as identified by the Orange–Senqu Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA), a scientific and technical assessment of the priority environmental concerns and shared management issues in the basin. For the priority issues, the analysis identifies the scale and distribution of the environmental and socio-economic impacts at national and basin levels and, through an analysis of the root causes, identifies potential remedial and/ or preventative actions. The SAP defines technical and management interventions to address these priority concerns at the basin-wide level. It was developed through an extensive consultation process and has been validated at basin-wide level in order to ensure that it reflects the priorities of the four basin states. It is well aligned with applicable regional agreements and policies, as well as the national development and sector plans of the basin states. Developed under the auspices of ORASECOM, this SAP – together with the Action Plans of the four basin states – forms the environmental component of the Orange– Senqu River basin IWRM Plan.

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