1. Introduction *

2. PROJECT MANAGEMENT *

3. progress on individual sub-projects AND ACTIVITIES *

Prepared by D Grobler, IWQS

1. INTRODUCTION

The financial status of the project as at 30 June 1999 is shown in Table 1. The total amount of funding allocated to Phases 1 and 2 in the 1998/99 financial year was R960 000, allocated amongst eight specialist sub-project teams. The total amount spent on the RDM project in the 1998/99 financial year was R 954 164. The amount allocated for phase 3 of the project is R800 000. The amount spent is R357 441.

A submission for the extension of the budget for phase 2 and 3 (R650 000) was submitted to MANCO for approval. Approval is urgently awaited to ensure the continuation of all the subtasks. The work will need to be terminated by the end of August 1999, if the approval for the extension of budget is not received by the beginning of August.

A submission for Phase 1 of a capacity building and awareness creation project was submitted to MANCO. The estimated budget for the proposed three year project is R2 million, with R800 000 allocated for the first financial year. Approval for this project is urgently awaited.

A steering committee meeting has been scheduled for 18 June 1999, and will be held on 16 July 1999 in head office, DWAF. The following new members will join the steering committee:

Mr Geoff Cowan, representing the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism

Mr G McConkey representing the regional offices of DWAF.

Due to the scope and complexity of the RDM project, which is a multi-institutional, inter-disciplinary effort, a formal project office was established at the beginning of Phase 3 in April 1999. Dana Grobler of IWQS will be responsible for project administration and buffer management; Heather MacKay will continue with the overall technical and management responsibility for the project; Carol Nkwentsha (wlsec@dwaf.gov.za) replaces Luccrecia Mkondo, taking over liaison and co-ordination.

Mr Grobler presented a talk at the workshop, and the following issues were raised at the workshop:

• People had terminology mixed up.
• The RDM team needed to meet with the directorate: Water Quality Management in order to consolidate activities.
• Some issues that surfaced:
• rate of license applications and how this would affect Reserve determinations
• identification of stressed catchments. These must be focussed on for Reserve determinations
• clear definitions and understandable methodology must be used. It must not be scientific
• Reserve determination was of concern to regional office personnel
• too much emphasis and money was going into studies on rivers and not enough on groundwater
• determination of the basic human needs Reserve
• need for training in the region
• resource issues - assessment of available skills
• uncertainty of budget requirements for Reserve determinations
• appoint consultants in the interim for Reserve determinations if resources were not available within DWAF
• the RDM project was assigned the responsibility for defining methodologies, training in the regions, capacity building and communication.
• Constraints seem to be more human resources than funding/financial.

Director-Generals and Deputy-Director Generals (Manco) should be targeted to communicate time frames and terminology and the implementation of the reserve determinations.

A document was prepared and distributed by H MacKay to standardise the terminology:

• Level 1: Desktop estimate (this is the old planning estimate, will be used for the National Water Balance Model, takes about 2 hours)
• Level 2: Rapid determination (this is the new extended planning estimate, takes about 2 days)
• Level 3: Intermediate determination (this is the old PERM, takes about 2 months)
• Level 4: Comprehensive determination (still called comprehensive, takes 12 months plus)

The Pienaars river pilot study will be undertaken from 02 – 06 August 1999. The main purpose of the pilot study is to:

• Test methods developed by the rivers, groundwater and wetland subtask teams.
• Integrate the various methods of the different task teams
• Integrate the water quality and quantity components of the methods for rivers
• Utilise a real practical example of reserve determination for the Pienaars River, representing a river in which the availability and reliability of the data is not high.
• Compile documentation to be utilised by the capacity building team as an example of reserve determination.

The following members from DWAF line functions were invited to attend and participate in the activities during the pilot study:

The development of an implementation strategy for RDM was initiated during May 1999. As the date for full implementation of the Water Act draws near, there is a need to consider the implementation of what is, for the Department, a very new set of policy and regulatory tools, requiring new expertise and a different management approach from the past. At the request of the Chief Director: Scientific Services, a new sub-project has been established in the RDM team to take on the development of an implementation strategy for RDM and to guide the implementation initially until it can be handed over to an appropriately staffed and resourced line function

The objectives of the RDM Implementation (RDMI) team are:

• To consolidate the Department's presently limited environmental expertise in order to best serve implementation of the water policy & Act
• To develop the strategy for implementation of RDM, for the short term (October 1999) and the medium term (to 2010)
• To develop a business plan for the line function which will eventually take responsibility for RDM
• To develop operating guidelines, procedures and work programme for the implementation, in progressively more detail
• To build and anchor the necessary capacity for full scale RDM implementation within the Department
• To hand over the working RDM implementation to the relevant function within Chief Directorate: Scientific Services, ensuring a seamless transition
• Having handed over, to continue to develop and refine the necessary policy procedures, guidelines, provide advisory & specialist support etc.

Some initial work has been done to begin prioritising expected RDM implementation requirements, and this will be continued and extended over the next few months under the leadership of Dr H MacKay and Mr JN Rossouw.

The implementation team will be working with representatives of all the regional offices and relevant line functions in order to identify in some detail:

• within each water management area, the expected priorities for RDM determination, based on the envisaged requirements for water use licensing (for all water uses) in the next 5 years;
• the levels of RDM determination likely to be required in each case;
• the expected time frame within which these determinations will be required in order to meet licensing requirements.

In order to generate this information, assistance from the regional offices and line functions will be necessary, and the relevant directors have been requested to nominate suitable members of their staff to participate in a series of workshops to be held later in the year.

The expected programme of activities required in order to identify and schedule RDM implementation priorities is outlined in Table 2 below.

As part of the development of the implementation strategy, the Western Cape regional office was visited during June 1999 to determine their requirements for incorporation in the generic strategy. H MacKay, D Grobler, T Duma and T Belcher from the IWQS, with N Rossouw (water quality and implementation subtasks) and S Fowkes (capacity building subtask) attended the meeting.

The ecosystem component of the resource classification system has been developed in considerable detail during the RDM project. The basic human needs and water users’ components are based on the existing Department documents "Domestic Water Quality Assessment Guide" and "SA Water Quality Guidelines".

The conceptual framework for the full resource classification system is based on a three-class system, which incorporates ecosystem protection, basic human needs protection and water users protection as follows:

• Class I: Special water resources -
  • retain natural ecological characteristics (A and high B)
  • safe for contact recreation & most water uses
  • can be used for basic human needs with minimum treatment
• Class II: General water resources -
  • retain a high degree of ecological function and integrity (B-high C)
  • safe for some recreation & non-sensitive water uses
  • can be used for bhn with treatment
• Class III: "Hard-working" water resources
  • retain at least some ecological function and integrity (C-D)
  • safe for some non-contact recreation & some water uses
  • advanced treatment may be required for bhn

Further refinements of the methods based on experienced gained in the application of the methodology to the Olifants River study were conducted by the water quality task team, two modifications were made:

• A method was developed to calculate unionised ammonia concentrations in river water samples from the ammonium concentration using temperature, electrical conductivity and pH. This is an addition to the original method that required the person doing the reserve determination to read un-ionised ammonia values from a table. This method is better suited to computer manipulations of water quality data. Water temperature data can be estimated from average air temperatures in the absence of observed water temperature data using the methods described in the manual.
• An alternate method for calculating the mean river water temperature from the average air temperature was also found and tested on the Olifants River.

Work will now focus on converting the documentation into the format required for integration into the final technical documents.

The work of the rivers team focussed on the planning and preparation for the Pienaars River pilot study.

An integrated list of actions attached to each of the Reserve steps were provided and adjusted. The objective of the pilot study is to end with a ‘real’, i.e. workable intermediate determination (old PERM) for quantity, quality and groundwater.

It was also decided that an important focus during the pilot study is to develop the yield and operating procedures. A meeting between the IWQS, the rivers task team and Mr J van Rooyen was held to discuss the matter and to request that they task somebody to be involved in the process. During the discussion it became apparent that a model for the system exists and will require some updating. Pieter van Rooyen (a consultant) will be appointed by Mr Havenga to update the model and to participate during the relevant sessions in the pilot study. The model will be run at the workshop. The procedures will therefore be developed through the real application on the Pienaars River.

The pilot study has been initiated and the following (quantity) tasks have been undertaken:

The PERM sites have been identified.

The locality and an initial map have been distributed.

A cross-sectional survey has been undertaken and hydraulic data been collected.

A stream classification (Roy Wadeson) has been undertaken and has been distributed.

A draft programme for the pilot study has been designed and distributed for comment.

A meeting was held during which the method developed by D Hughes and the Tennant/Sellick approach was discussed.

The Hughes approach has more significance in the South African context as it is based on more rivers than Tennant, the rivers are South African and are varied in size and hydrological characteristics. However, a lack of data exists for seasonal and perennial rivers, and it was felt that the ‘curves’, are not conservative enough. To adjust the curves, a link between ecological habitat and the hydrology must be investigated. Water Resources Management is now funding a study whereby 4 rivers selected by Neels, Jay and Denis will be used to establish the shape of the curves at the drier end. The rivers all have a required hydrological index and are the Matlabas (index of 27), Shingwedzi (index of 20), Bushmens (index of 54) and Gonube (index of 16). Hydraulics will be available for the 4 rivers and a ‘mini’ IFR will be undertaken for each to come up with total volumes for additional points on the curves. A discussion session on how to adjust the curves based on this information will also be undertaken. Even though this will not provide high confidence estimates, it will provide some data where at present there is nothing.

A one-day workshop was held in June to develop terms of reference for the project to map level II ecoregions for South Africa. Additional funding was requested to carry out this work in the 1999/2000 financial year: once confirmation is received regarding the amount of funding which is actually available, the terms of reference can be submitted to the Control Committee and the project initiated. If the work is to be funded from the present RDM budget, then the scope of work for 1999/2000 will have to be scaled down considerably.

3.5 GROUNDWATER

• Meetings were being held with people who commented on the groundwater specialist report.
• Mr Parsons is in the processes of revising the groundwater methodology to incorporate suggested changes.
• Presentations were made to the groundwater community to communicate the progress and the methods.
• Mr Parsons is working with Prof Denis Hughes of Rhodes University on determining the groundwater Reserve for the Pienaars River system.
• The WRC groundwater Reserve project team was to have an initial attempt at determining the groundwater Reserve at Venetia Mine was not done, as they decided to do it on the Pienaars River project.
• A presentation on Groundwater Reserve would take place on 31 May 1999 at the CSIR, building 23, 17:30 for 18:00.

A two day workshop was attended by Dr H MacKay and Mr Parsons to plan the activities of the WRC project on the comprehensive determination methodologies currently under development.

Mainactivities of Mr Parsons during May

- worked on groundwater document and case studies

- development work on reference conditions and current status

- collected data for Pienaars River pilot test

- presentation to GWD (Cape Town, Pretoria)

- discussions - Dr Tredoux (CT)

- discussions - Mr Conrad (CT)

- discussion - Mr Woodford (CT)

Main activities of Mr Parsons during June

- collected data for Pienaars River pilot test

- field visit to Pienaars River area

- discussions - Mr Orpen (Dwaf - Pretoria)

- discussions - Mr Xu (DWAF - Pretoria)

- discussions - Mr Pietersen (WRC - Pretoria)

- discussion - Mr Hobbs (VSA - Pretoria)

There have been a number of studies on the freshwater requirements of estuaries (e.g. Palmiet, Mhlathuze, Nhlabane, Tugela, Olifants, Mkomazi). The approach used in these studies has been documented. Comments from the estuarine reserve group were included in the final document.

A desktop estimate was determined for Eastern Cape Rivers on a quaternary basis. This study ignored the freshwater requirements of estuaries and this was thought to be a serious omission as for certain types of estuaries the freshwater requirements may be higher that the instream flow requirements. For this reason the Eastern Pondoland Coastal Basin Study (EPCBS, Transkei) undertook to determine a planning reserve estimate for sixteen estuaries in this area. A two day workshop was held. On day 2 a desktop estimate method for estuaries was refined. This method has been written up and will now be sent out to the estuarine reserve group for input.

Project planning funded a study on the planning estimate for 16 Pondoland (Northern Transkei) estuaries. Dr Janine Adams reported that the Desktop Estimate for 16 estuaries had been completed. A report was compiled, sent out for comment and will be finalised.

Work during 1999 will focus on developing a intermediate determination (preliminary method). Due to budget constraints the pilot study will only take place next year. A possible site for this study is the Mtata estuary. The Mtata River basin This study has been given the go-ahead by project planning.

B Weston and A Whitfield attended a workshop held by Marine and Coastal Management. The implications of the Marine Living Resources Act were discussed. Ms Barbara Weston presented the New Water Act at the workshop. Other coastal legislation was discussed as well as the linkages between the different Acts.

A pilot study will take place in 2000 - a possible site being the Mtata Estuary. This pilot study must incorporate river, wetland and groundwater components and should be discussed by this integration team.

The 7^th Conference of Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands was held in Costa Rica in May 1999. Dr H MacKay participated as a member of the South African delegation to the meeting, along with Geoff Cowan, Dr Rod Randall and John Dini of DEAT, and Fadl Nacerodien of Foreign Affairs.

One of the major themes of the meeting was "Ramsar and Water". It has been recognised by the Convention that in order to ensure the protection of wetlands, including Ramsar-listed sites and others, wetland ecosystems require protection under water policy and law as well as under environmental and biodiversity legislation. Countries which have signed the Ramsar convention are being encouraged by the Convention to undertake reform of national water policy in order to promote more effective protection and sustainable use of wetlands. South Africa’s water policy and law was recognised as being "state of the art" in this respect, and generated a considerable amount of interest.

During the reporting period a draft discussion document was prepared drawing together the outcome of the January workshop and limited literature review to outline a conceptual approach to determining the Reserve for wetlands. The draft was circulated and useful comment was received which will be incorporated in the further development of the methodology. The document precipitated new contacts with researchers and sources of information related to wetland work underway in South Africa. The results of a thorough search on the WaterLit database are being processed at the moment. Mary Jean Gabriel has made several contacts in the USA.

The approach proposed in the discussion document will form the basis of the joint pilot study with the Rivers and Groundwater RDM groups on the Pienaars River at the beginning of August. A classic floodplain type wetland about 20 km long is located on the Pienaars River and will provide a good opportunity to test some of the concepts and further develop the methodology in a workshop environment. Fieldwork and data gathering for the pilot study are underway at present. The survey of the cross sections for the Wetlands Reserve pilot study was conducted during June 1999, assistance form Geomatics is greatly appreciated. Ms Gabriel and one more technician from IWQS attended the field work.

A link between the wetland task team has been made through the Rennies Wetland Awareness Campaign, with the Forestry industry initiative to develop tools for wetland delineation.

A capacity building and awareness creation strategy document was finalised.

The capacity building team have established formal links with the WRC for capacity building.

Ms Fowkes (team leader for capacity building) had a successful meeting with Ms Barbara Schreiner and Mr Marion Sekati regarding DWAF’s capacity building initiatives.

The first two-day introductory course on RDM determination was held on 30 and 31 March 1999 in Pretoria. It was attended by 34 Department officials. All the regions (water resources, water quality and geohydrology) and several head office directorates were represented. The feedback was very positive. Comments received on the course content and structure have been incorporated into the design of the next course.

The dates for the next training courses are:

• 27 - 28 July 1999 - for DWAF officials only (Venue - Grasdak close to Roodeplaat Dam).

• 25 - 26 September 1999 - IAIA, Bloemfontein (open but not free of charge). The International Association for Impact Assessments will offer a two-day seminar on reserve determination prior to their 1999 annual conference. Members of the RDM team will package and present the seminar for IAIA, which will be aimed at IEM and environmental professionals.

• 30 November - 1 December 1999 – Western Cape region (for DWAF officials only, but open to all regions and directorates).

The first copy of the Water Act News was prepared and 6000 copies printed. Copies were distributed to about 25 categories of stakeholders. These included district councils, all DWAF offices (forestry and water), all provincial government departments, all libraries, mining, industry, international companies, every Working for Water office in the country and Metropolitan Councils.

Several comment sheets were received. Comments included the following requests:

• More information on CMA and WUA.
• Wanting to comment on specialist or almost specialist documents.
• Most people want to comment on resource directed measures.
• Use more practical examples to explain concepts.
• More newsletters.

An additional 1000 copies were printed during June 1999.

A factsheet which focussed on the use and protection of resources as well as an explanation of the Reserve, had been compiled and will be distributed in 4 languages. Target audiences for the factsheet would include companies that are seeking ISO 14000 status, paper industries, Working for Water project offices, amongst others.

The following tasks were performed during the reporting period:

4. CROCODILE RIVER 2000

A full scale demonstration project for resource protection policy will be established in the Crocodile River catchment, Mpumalanga, from January 2000. Dirk Roux will be the study manager. The initial partners in this project are DWAF and the CSIR. A proposal has also been submitted to WWF International for funding under their Living Waters Campaign.

Legend and abbreviations:

Example layout for rivers technical procedure document

Report number:

Team Leader(s):

Senior Author(s):

Editor:

Section A: RDM Integrated Document (repeat) (HM)

Section B: RDM for River Ecosystems

Section C: Procedure for desktop determination of RDM

Section D: Procedure for rapid determination of RDM

Section E: Procedure for intermediate determination of RDM

Section F: Procedure for comprehensive determination of RDM

SPECIALIST APPENDICES

R1: Importance and sensitivity rating (CJK)

R2: Social importance rating (JO/RT)

R3: Economic values of ecosystem services (MM)

R4: Ecoregional typing to level II (CJK/LH/CT)

R5: Stream classification to level IV (RW/KR)

R6: Site selection (DL)

R7: Hydraulic calibration and modelling (AB)

R9: Rapid present ecological status assessment (CJK/RT)

R10: Intermediate habitat integrity assessment (NK)

R11: Comprehensive habitat integrity assessment (NK)

R12: Ecological classification for river ecosystems (HM/?)

• habitat
• biota
• water quality
• flow

R13: Rapid/Desktop quantification of flow component using Hughes method (DH)

R14: Intermediate quantification of flow component using PERM(QN) method (DL)

R15: Comprehensive quantification of flow component (DL/HM)

R16: Determination of Resource Quality Objectives (LH)

R17: Extrapolation Guide (DH)

R18: Past IFR results (DH/VK/DL)

R19: Rapid quantificaition of water quality component (JNR)

R20: Intermediate quantification of water quality component (JNR)

R21: Comprehe