Chalimbana Catchment attracts Water Partnership

By PELEKELO LISWANISO

REGARDLESS of language or culture all Zambians share basic needs essentials for survival, which include food, shelter and water.

Yes, water. We drink it, cook with it, bath in it, sprinkle our lawns, fill our backyard swimming pools with it and even create parks with water around.

We take its abundance for granted, but in much of the country’s rural areas and peri-urban areas, access to clean water is a luxury.

Although water is relatively abundant in Zambia as compared to neighboring countries in the south particularly Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, most of the villages in Zambia lack access to clean water.

In many of these villages, women must walk up to 10 kilometers every day to retrieve the day's supply of potable water for their households.

The annual rainfall averages between 700mm in the south and 1400 mm in the north, with an extensive river network, lakes and a number of aquifers in various parts of the country. The irony is that these water resources are not properly managed.

“The management of these water resources is critical if equitable access by competing needs particularly the vulnerable poor, women and children is considered,” said professor Imasiku Nyambe, a geologist and executive secretary of the Zambia Water Partnership (ZWP).

In addition, there are significant variations across the country with a strong seasonal distribution leading to water deficits in specific localities.

In certain areas, competition for available water resources has already manifested itself such as among the farming community in the Chalimbana River Catchment area, east of Lusaka. Conflict over water is likely to increase with the economic development in the country.

“For these reasons Zambia should seriously look and implement water demand management if she has to manage her water resources,” Professor Nyambe said.

It is this realization that has prompted the Zambia Water Partnership (ZWP) through the Partnership for Africa’s Water Development (PAWD) to target the Chalimbana River Catchment area and alleviate the suffering of the people.

“People there need water and we have to act now. We need to create access to safe, consumable water to the people of Chalimbana Catcment because it is not only a basic human need, it is human right, said Mr. Adam Hussen, the PAWD chairman.

”Our goal is to raise money for the construction and maintenance of clean water including dams in the area,” said Mr. Hussen, who is also director of the department of Water Affairs in the Ministry of Energy and Water Development.

He said this last week during a consultative meeting of the PAWD Core Team at the National Water Supply and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), where it was agreed that a national stakeholder workshop to address the problems of the Chalimbana Catchment area be convened soon.

PAWD project manager Chimwanga Maseka was directed to ensure that the secretariat, which is based at the University of Zambia (UNZA) School of Mines, takes up the issue of Chalimbana River high on the agenda of ZWP and convene a workshop for stakeholders as soon as possible.

ZWP has targeted the Chalimbana River Catchment as a pilot project to apply the principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in resolving water resources management issues in the country.

An IWRM strategy ensures that social, economic, environmental and technical dimensions are taken into account in the management and development of water resources and ZWP hopes this can be realised in Chalimbana.

A study supported by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) through the PAWD project shows that the Chalimbana Catchment has seen many water resources management problems, which has qualified it as a “hot spot” needing IWRM application.

According to the study, the catchment, which at one time was well forested and captured enough water for the river to flow throughout the year, has undergone significant changes.

The unspoiled forests that covered the catchment to protect the headwaters and recharge areas have continued to diminish due to de-forestation leaving the area bare in many places leading to increased run-off and erosion. This has eventually led to the current worrying situation of the river and reduced base flows.

The population and settlements have also increased over time and water use activities have developed with many commercial interests. Some of these activities are not only depleting the water resources of the river but are also polluting the river. Consequently, water has become inadequate for the various users with some of them going without it as the river flows continue to decline with some parts of the river drying up during the dry season.

It is apparent that the current systems of resolving the above issues, both institutional and legal have proved inadequate and problems continue to grow.

“It is clear that the situation is getting desperate and needs a new approach to address these issues,” the study says, noting that Zambia’s water sector reforms have provided a favourable environment for addressing the issues of the Chalimbana Catchment using IWRM.

It is in this light that ZWP under PAWD decided to operationalise IWRM on the Chalimbana Catchment and demonstrate that indeed IWRM is a sure way of managing water resources in a sustainable way.

Over the years, government ministries and departments have played various roles in both the water supply and water resources sub-sectors, often without clear responsibilities and co-ordination creating operational overlaps and gaps, leading to duplication of activities and thereby straining the resources.

The water reforms have established very clear institutional structures from the national or central level to the local government level and it is expected that Water Resources Action Programme (WRAP) would also compliment the Chalimbana project. WRAP manager Andy Mondoka, was also present during the PAWD core team meeting.

WRAP aims at supporting the National Water Policy in the establishment of a comprehensive framework, which will promote the use, development, and management of water resources in a sustainable manner.

WRAP seeks to develop a framework for Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The programme draws heavily from the National Water Policy and global paradigms such as the Dublin-Rio Principles
ZWP chairman, Mr. Osward Chanda, who is also director of NWASCO, and whose organisation was established under the water supply and sanitation Act (28) 1997 and is responsible for regulating the provision of water supply and sanitation services throughout the country, emphasised that a lot of time had been wasted and it was time to act in Chalimbana and ensure that adequate water is available in the area.