1.INTRODUCTION*


2.PROJECT MANAGEMENT*

2.1FINANCIAL STATUS*
2.2STEERING COMMITTEE*
2.3PLANNING FOR RDM DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION*
2.4PROJECT OFFICE*

3.PROGRESS ON INDIVIDUAL SUB-PROJECTS*

3.1RIVERS*
3.2GROUNDWATER*
3.3ESTUARIES*
3.4WETLANDS*
3.5CAPACITY BUILDING*
3.6COMMUNICATION*

Table 1: Financial summary phases 1,2 and 3 of Resource Directed Measures

Phase 1(Jul 97 - Mar 98	200,000	206,383
Phase 1(Apr 98 - Jul 98)			300,000	304,654
Phase 2(Aug 98 - Mar 99)			660,000	649,510

    2.2 Steering Committee

A steering committee meeting has been scheduled for 14 April 1999 at IWQS.The following documents have been provided to the steering committee:
Draft 1 Integrated report of Jan 99
Crocodile River pilot test results
Final draft groundwater component of ecological reserve methodology
RDM development and implementation plan
March 99 progress report

    2.3 Planning for RDM development and implementation

From 9 to 12 March, the project team held an intensive planning session, facilitated by Dr Dirk Grobler, to develop a detailed plan for development, testing and implementation of RDM.The plan will include
the schedule of work and deliverables between April 1999 and July 2004,
resource assignments,
budget and
indications of links to other task team work.

Work is being planned and scheduled according to critical chain management principles.The schedule will be refined during April 1999.Appendix A contains the draft master schedule of deliverables and the top level Intermediate Objectives (IO) map.An implementation plan for RDM is currently being prepared and will be circulated.

    2.4 Project office

Due to the scope and complexity of the RDM project, which is a multi-institutional, inter-disciplinary effort, a formal project office will be 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 retain overall technical and management responsibility for the project;Luccrecia Mkhondo replaces Olga Shapo, taking over liaison and co-ordination.

3. PROGRESS ON INDIVIDUAL SUB-PROJECTS

    3.1 Rivers

The specialist appendices on the water quantity and water quality components of the ecological reserve, and the setting of habitat Resource Quality Objectives,have been revised after the Crocodile River pilot test, and are included in the January 99 draft of the Integrated Report.

A revised document on evaluation of potential habitat impacts of sand mining, prepared by Liesl Hill and Neels Kleynhans, has been circulated for comment to various directorates and task teams.Some very useful comments have been received to date.This should be finalised shortly as input to the licensing guide currently being prepared by Dale Cobban of Papitt.

A one-day workshop has been scheduled in June to developterms 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.

    3.2 Groundwater

Tasks completed by Roger Parsons included the following:
presented lecture to Directorate of Geohydrology staff regarding the Reserve and the quantification of the groundwater component (Pretoria).
attended Directorate of Geohydrology workshop to discuss linkages between surface and groundwater in the National Water Balance project (Pretoria).
participated in two day planning workshop for the wetlands reserve component (Nylsvlei)
attended RDM project integration meeting December 1998 and January 1999 (Pretoria)
attended meeting onnational reserve conference and training (Cape Town)
visited Prof Denis Hughes to discuss the development of a model to improve the groundwater component quantification and linkage to the surface water quantity model based on WR90 (Grahamstown)
held various ad hoc discussions regarding the Reserve and quantification of the groundwater component
Final draft groundwater methodology was emailed or posted to various interested parties, and several detailed comments were received.

Other:
Heather MacKay presented a lecture on implications of water law and policy for groundwater protection, to participants in the SIDA international course on management of groundwater in urban areas. (Cape Town, Feb 99).
The final draft groundwater methodology was sent to two specialists for formal peer review.Comments have been received and will be incorporated into the document.
an application to the WRC for funding for Roger Parsons to attend a surface - groundwater interaction course in Denver was turned down, principally because Mr Parsons was a consultant and did not have a current project with the WRC.The transfer of information to SA researchers could have been most valuable in the RDM project, but there is insufficient flexibility in the funding mechanisms of both DWAF and the WRC to deal with such situations, where researchers are in commercial consultancies and not universities or research institutions.

    3.3 Estuaries

Work commenced in October 1998, to prepare for a specialist workshop held in February 1999 in Port Elizabeth.Participants in the workshop included estuarine specialists from various institutions and disciplines.Mr Laurie Barwell of CSIR facilitated the two days' discussions.

A report on the proceedings has been prepared.The first day consisted of presentations and discussion on current methodologies for determining the rivers reserve and estuarine flow requirements, in order to reach a common understanding of principles and approaches.The second day's discussions covered the work required in order to develop methodologies for determination of the estuaries reserve (quantity and quality).Terms of reference for Phase 3 will be drawn up on the basis of these discussions.

Dr Janine Adams of UPE will take over from Prof Guy Bate as estuaries sub-project team leader with Barbara Weston of DWAF.

The Water Research Commission provided R 30 000 to supplement the estuaries budget available on the RDM project.This enabled us to bring many more specialists into the workshop, and was invaluable in creating awareness and co-operation from the estuarine scientific community in South Africa.

    3.4 Wetlands

The starter document for the specialist workshop was completed during December and posted out in early January.It was well received by workshop participants.Most of January was spent on logistical arrangements for the workshop, which was held on 25 & 26 January 1999 at the old CSIR Group Camp at the Nylsvley Nature Reserve, Nylstroom.

The Water Research Commission provided R 30 000 to supplement the wetlands budget available on the RDM project.This enabled us to bring many more specialists into the workshop, and was invaluable in creating awareness and co-operation from wetland scientists in South Africa.

The arrival of participants on the Sunday night before the workshop provided opportunity for socialising and a fresh, early start (7 am) on the Monday morning.The first day was spent on the Reserve concepts and presenting the rivers and groundwater methodologies.This session proved to be an important and steep learning curve for all involved.Sundowners in the Nylsvley Wetland provided an opportunity for further discussion of some of the concepts raised during the presentations.

The second day was spent discussing approaches to determining the reserve for wetlands.On the basis of a recommendation from the groundwater working group and similar ideas raised during discussion, it was agreed to adopt the generic six-step methodology as a basis for developing a reserve methodology for wetlands.A general discussion was then structured around the various steps of the methodology to tease out conceptual issues related to wetlands.During the latter part of the workshop, participants were split into two groups and given the task of determining the reserve for a lake-type wetland and a linear wetland.

The workshop proposed that the wetland reserve be defined in terms of the functions and values that wetlands support.The need for a refined ecoregional classification system for South African wetlands and the further development of hydraulic modelling for wetlands were identified as two areas of essential research.Without the latter it will be difficult to link hydrology to wetland dynamics.Indications are that these research needs could be addressed within existing programmes at the CSIR and WRC.

February was spent editing the proceedings of the workshop and working on the discussion document that will pull together the discussions at the workshop and other national and international initiatives and propose a way forward to developing a wetland reserve methodology.The discussion document will be finalised by the end of March 1999.

A copy of the starter document from the Nylsvley workshop was forwarded to the Ramsar Bureau in Switzerland, and was received with considerable interest.The development of methodologies for determination of the water quantity and quality requirements of wetlands, and South Africa's progress in this respect, will be discussed at the 7th Conference of Parties of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in Costa Rica, 10-18 May 1999.Dr Heather MacKay has been nominated as a member of the South African delegation to this meeting.

    3.5 Capacity building

The draft strategy report was compiled and passed to Themba Duma for circulation to Capacity Building team for comment.

At the planning session of 9-12 March, anIO map & network of tasks was developed.

Sandra Fowkes, Themba Duma and Heather MacKay met with Barbara Schreiner and Miriam Sekati on 31 March to discuss capacity building for RDM implementation, links with CD:WUC capacity building and collaboration with the Directorate: Human Resource Development.

The first short course on classification and determination of the reserve was held in Pretoria on 30 and 31 March.The course was attended by 33 DWAF staff, drawn from regional offices and line functions.

National reserve conference: Sandra Fowkes, Rebecca Tharme attended planning meeting.Clarity is needed on the role of DWAF in initiating and supporting this conference, and planning has been put on hold pending guidance being received from CDSS.

IAIA conference:IAIA 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.

    3.6 Communication

The following tasks were undertaken on the communication sub-project:

Version one of brochure submitted to Integration team for comment
Comment included and version to submitted and approved by Heather MacKay
Version two submitted to Henk van Vliet, after request for a change in focus
Version three submitted to Heather MacKay on 2 March 1999
Administration regarding printing
Completion of interpretative graphics for:

brochure
DWAF team members
Capacity building team

Produced article and graphics for IAIA's South African newsletter, approved by Henk van Vliet and submitted to IAIA
Informally presented overview of RDM in Act and proposal for implementation to several technical teams and encouraged comment
Prepared article in draft for River Health newsletter
Attended Integration meetings on 7 December 1998 and 27 January 1999
Preparation for producing Discussion Document
Collected, updated and verified stakeholder information for electronic database
Categorised database, currently reducing list from 5000 to 2000 key stakeholders

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Appendix A:Draft master schedule of deliverables and IO map for RDM development and implementation

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RDM MASTER SCHEDULE OF DELIVERABLES

		Classification	Reserve	RQO	Classification	Reserve	RQO	Classification	Reserve	RQO
River ecosystems
	Apr 99			X
Delana Louw	Oct 99	Final	Final	X
	Jan 01	-	-	X	Final	Final	Final
	Jan 04	-	-	X	-	-	-	Final	Final	Final
Groundwater resources
	Apr 99			X
Roger	Oct 99	Final	Final	X
Parsons	Jan 01	-	-	X	Final	Final	Final
	Jan 04	-	-	X	-	-	-	Final	Final	Final
Estuaries ecosystems
	Apr 99
Janine Adams	Pilot 99
& Barbara	Oct 99	Final	Final	X
Weston	Jan 01	-	-	X	Final	Final	Final
	Jan 04	-	-	X	-	-	-	Final	Final	Final
Wetlands ecosystems
	Apr 99
Andrew	Aug 99
Duthie	Oct 99	Final	Final	X
	Jan 01	-	-	X	Final	Final	Final
	Jan 04	-	-	X	-	-	-	Final	Final	Final
Basic human needs RDM
	Oct 99	Final	Final	X			X			X
Adhishri	Jan 01	-	-	X	-	-	X	Final	Final	X
Singh ?	Jan 04	-	-	X	-	-	X	-	-	X
Water users RDM
	Oct 99	Final	X	X		X	X		X	X
Toni	Jan 01	-	X	X	-	X	X	Final	X	X
Belcher	Jan 04	-	X	X	-	X	X	-	X	X

Legend and abbreviations:

RDM	Resource directed measures	Includes classification system, procedures for selecting future management class, procedures for setting reserve, procedures for setting resource quality objectives
RQO	Resource quality objectives	Habitat and biotic objectives, mainly descriptive
WMI	Water management institution	Includes DWAF regions, or catchment management agencies, or licensing agencies
WRM	Water resource management	Includes allocation planning, catchment management, licence evaluation, monitoring & review
NWRS	National Water Resource Strategy
X	Not applicable
-	No additional development scheduled
-version	"Zero"-version procedures	Outline of approach only, agreed by specialist team, detail of each step must still be developed
-version	"alpha"-version procedures	Working prototypes, agreed by specialist team, ready for pilot testing by team and limited testing in selected real applications
-version	"beta"-version procedures	Developed and tested procedures, to be refined after real applications around SA by a wider group
Final version	Final version of procedures	Fully developed and tested procedures, ready for publication in the Gazette

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