Technical partners commit to the successful implementation of the UNDP-GEF Limpopo project

The “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin (UNDP-GEF Limpopo project),” is an important intervention for strengthening sustainable development in the Limpopo. Cognisant of this, the Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM), in partnership with the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), organized an Integration Workshop for technical partners to align their work plans and ensure smooth implementation of the project.

Held on 7-8 February 2024 in a hybrid format coordinated from Pretoria, South Africa, the workshop was attended by more than 50 participants representing LIMCOM Member States (Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe), the Project Management Unit (LIMCOM and GWPSA), technical leads of the project, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Participants agreed to align and harmonize their workstreams as well as counterpart workstreams so that they effectively contribute to the project’s collective objectives “of uplifting the living standards of the basin’s population and conserving the basin’s resources and ecosystem services,” through several interventions being executed at the community level.”

In his address to the Integration Workshop, Mr Manatsa Ruzengwe, representing the Government of Zimbabwe as Chair of LIMCOM, said it was critical for all stakeholders and technical partners to “pull in one direction” and ensure that the people living in the basin fully benefit from the project. “The Limpopo River Basin belongs to us and none but ourselves should be the champions of development in the basin,” he said.

With an estimated population of 18 million people and a catchment area of about 408,000 km², the Limpopo Basin supports various socio-economic activities in the four countries that share the basin. These socio-economic activities include tourism, trade, mining, and agriculture. As such, the successful implementation of the project is paramount to sustainable development in the four Riparian States of Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

This is also because the population in the basin is expected to reach over 20 million by 2040, putting more pressure on the transboundary water resources in the Limpopo, which are already under severe stress from the impacts of climate change, as well as poor water quality degradation and land degradation.

To help address these challenges and uplift the living standards of the basin’s population, the UNDP-GEF Limpopo project has engaged various technical partners and consultants to lead and undertake a suite of activities designed to strengthen capacities for joint planning and management at both the national and transboundary levels.

The suite of activities and project interventions includes undertaking the Limpopo Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) that will lead to the formulation of a Strategic Action Plan (SAP). Other activities, which will also feed into the TDA/SAP process are:

• Exploring harmonization of implementation of Environmental Flows and Joint Basin Survey to assess aquatic ecosystem health;
• Assessment of sediment transport and development of a sediment monitoring system;
• Assessing the availability of water for Future Water Resources Scenarios, and Associated Climate Resilient Economic, Financial and Investment Analysis;
• Assessment of Alluvial Aquifer Abstraction and Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems;
• Implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) activities; and
• Development of the Limpopo River Basin Management Information System (LIMIS).

Through the Limpopo TDA and SAP, Member States will agree on a set of transboundary priorities for the basin, which will guide both transboundary and national investments in the future. The main aim of implementing SLM activities at a pilot scale is to reduce land degradation including reduced sedimentation and improve land productivity for replication and up-scaling through socio-economic beneficiation opportunities inclusive of payment for ecosystem services models.

The SLM pilot sites — one each in the four Riparian States are the Mogobane Dam in the Notwane sub-catchment in Botswana; Massingir Dam in the Lower Elephant’s sub-catchment in Mozambique; Mapochs in the Steelpoort sub-catchment of the Olifants River in South Africa; and the Guyu-Chelesa irrigation scheme in the Shashe sub-catchment in Zimbabwe.

The LIMCOM Executive Secretary, Mr Sergio Sitoe, said it was pleasing to note that all technical partners in the project now fully understand and appreciate how they contribute to the overall programme and the impact that the project is supposed to make in the Limpopo River Basin. “We must maintain this dialogue and flow of communication to ensure the success of the project,” he said.

The technical partners also identified key touchpoints of information flows, timelines, and data requirements, as well as synergies and integration points. For example, it was agreed that each technical partner mainstreams capacity development in their work plans to ensure that the intervention continues to be relevant well beyond the lifespan of the project.

Another major area of convergence for the technical partners was the need to involve all stakeholders to promote ownership of the project by the Member States and the people living in the basin. Furthermore, the meeting said it is critical to widely disseminate the information generated from the studies to ensure that stakeholders have the correct information to make informed decisions.

The UNDP and GWPSA, who are supporting the project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) pledged full support to the project. As the GEF implementing entity, the UNDP provides overall oversight of the project with GWPSA being the executing agency, while LIMCOM is the focal custodian of the project implementation.

“We want to share our commitment to building a sustainable and prosperous future for the Limpopo River Basin and its inhabitants,” said Deshni Pillay, the Nature, Climate and Energy Portfolio Manager at UNDP. Dr Loreen Katiyo, the GWPSA Transboundary Water Governance and Environmental Specialist concurred, saying “GWPSA is committed to working with Member States, the LIMCOM Secretariat and all partners to achieve the goals of the project.”

About the UNDP-GEF Limpopo project

The LRB is facing severe water stress that has been further exacerbated by climate change and increasing population. It is, therefore, critical to address these transboundary water challenges through cooperative actions by the Basin States. In this regard, the project “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin” aims to achieve integrated, cross-sectoral, ecosystem-based management of the Limpopo River to uplift the living standards of the basin’s population and conserve the basin’s resources and ecosystem services.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in South Africa, together with the Global Water Partnership-Southern Africa (GWPSA), are supporting the project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) International Waters programme. As the GEF implementing entity, the UNDP provides overall oversight of the project with GWPSA being the executing agency, while LIMCOM is the focal custodian of the project implementation. The project intervention logic is structured around five main components:

• Component 1: Capacity Building of LIMCOM and its Member States for joint planning and the basin-wide Strategic Action Programme (SAP) and IWRM implementation.
• Component 2: Filling critical knowledge gaps to support joint planning and future development scenario analysis.
• Component 3: Informed Strategic Planning and Decision Making to implement the basin-wide IWRM (Science-to-Governance).
• Component 4:  Participatory IWRM Sustainable Land Management (SLM) implementation pilots.
• Component 5: Knowledge exchange with other River Basin Organizations and information sharing for replication and upscaling.

More information about the project is available HERE.

LIMCOM

The Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM) was established through the LIMCOM Agreement signed in November 2003 by the four Member States — Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe — in Maputo. The main objective of LIMCOM is to advise and “provide recommendations on the uses of the Limpopo, its tributaries and its waters for purposes and measures of protection, preservation and management of the Limpopo.” LIMCOM is based in Mozambique.

The Limpopo River Basin

The Limpopo River Basin (LRB) is one of the major river basins in southern Africa, and it is shared by four countries namely Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The catchment area of the LRB is estimated at 408,000 km² and the basin has a population of over 18 million people. The river flows north from South Africa, where it creates the border between South Africa and Botswana and then the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, before crossing into Mozambique and draining into the Indian Ocean. The basin supports diverse socio-economic activities in the four Riparian States including agro-industry, large-scale irrigation, rain-fed subsistence agriculture, mining, and eco-tourism, and hosts some of the world’s foremost protected areas.