SIDE EVENT: MONDAY 9 NOVEMBER 18:00 - 19.30
African Water Week, Gallagher Estate, Johannesburg, South Africa
Managing Africa's trans-boundary waters by trans-boundary land management
Presented by Alterra, Wageningen UR
Our challenge
The world faces huge water and food challenges in view of increasing pressures by population growth, the global climate change and socio-economical developments (urbanization, changes in diets and lifestyle, etc.). This requires a fundamental rethinking of the conceptual framework of land and water management.
In dealing with water issues, the general focus has been on supply and demand management of surface water and groundwater resources (referred to as "blue water" resources). This approach does not sufficiently acknowledge the role of rainfall as the ultimate water resource. The fate of rainfall is principally determined by land use. It should thus be recognized that the availability and quality of surface water and groundwater resources, and their spatio-temporal variability, primarily depends on land use and land management. Spatial planning and land management are, therefore, crucial for water management, especially in arid and semi-arid zones, where the (exploitable) groundwater and surface water generally represent a small percentage of the rainfall.
Spatial planning and land management should primarily focus on (commercial) forestry, agriculture and town planning, as these land uses are largely manageable. Agriculture and forestry can be regarded as the world's principal "rainfall processing industries".
Options to face this challenge
In the side event we will
" present options to use spatial planning and land use management as tools in water management;
" present the possibilities to use interactive discussion support tools enabling stakeholders to make rapid assessments, search for feasible land development options and set priorities, both in a national and trans-boundary context;
" discuss with the participants possible evaluation criteria for priority setting, for example crop water productivity (food security), economic water productivity (economic development), social water productivity (jobs and welfare) and ecological water productivity (integrity of ecosystems) and present examples.
We hope to see you on Monday 9 November at 18:00
Contact:
Herco Jansen, herco.jansen@wur.nl
Kees van 't Klooster, kees.vantklooster@wur.nl