• by Johannes Myburgh (livingstone)
• Wednesday, March 02, 2011
• Inter Press Service

Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe are poised to sign a memorandum of understanding to improve power generation along the length of the Zambezi River.

At Victoria Falls, where the mighty river crashes into a spectactular gorge, Abraham Sashi, manager of the North Bank Power Station hopes this agreement - and the eventual formal establishment of a basin-wide commission - will lead to improved information systems to prevent damage from flooding or drought.

Technical teams representing the eight countries in the Zambezi river basin, from its origin in Zambia to its mouth 2,650 kilometres away in the Indian Ocean in Mozambique, met at the falls in Febuary to consider recommendations on how they can work together to streamline their management and information-sharing on water levels and rainfall along the vast waterway.

'I need that information so I can prepare for eventual floods and protect my station. That info Zambia can't do on its own,' says Sashi.

'Regional management would help. Right now I'm uncertain how much the water will rise at the Victoria Falls.'

As climate change increasingly affects the region, Zambia could lose up to seven percent of its national power output should drought shut down the 108 megawatt-power station or floods inundate the untested watertight doors at the foot of the falls. At the moment, monitoring of the river is insufficient, especially when it comes to regional early flood warning.

'We have information relating to the flow in the Zambezi. But we only have about three gauging points,' says Sashi, while behind him clear water cascades down 100 metres into his power station's turbines.

'These are not adequate to provide sufficient information regarding the flooding.'

Though individual countries monitor rainfall and the water levels of the Zambezi on their own, there are increasing calls for a region-wide centralised information system.

Such a system would be a key function of the Zambezi Watercourse Commission (ZAMCOM). Five countries ratified the ZAMCOM agreement in 2005, which would consolidate regional water management efforts. One more country needs to ratify ZAMCOM to bring the treaty into effect.

Formal ratification of the agreement has been mired in trust issues as countries are reticent to give up their independence in management of water resources with so much at stake. Zambia, the country in which most of the river lies, still has not ratified, claiming it needs to make 'legislative changes' first.

Despite long delays, the commission is expected to become a reality, and an interim secretariat will start a one-year operation in 2011. Zambia is signing a memorandum of understanding with Mozambique and Zimbabwe to improve communications along the river.

'We can't sit around doing nothing until ZAMCOM is ratified by other countries so that sharing info is postponed until other countries agree,' says Calcida Machava, director of the Mozambican Zambezi river authority, ARA Zambeze.

The memorandum will formalise a relationship that started in 2008 by tackling lengthy bureaucratic processes required to access neighbouring countries' water information. At first special request letters had to be sent to neighbouring authorities for even basic details on dam levels, but this exchange has been increasingly streamlined and sped up.

'Info was exchanged between water departments and directorates of different countries or at individual level between hydrologists,' says Machava. These exchanges are essential to the safe and optimal operation of various dams - for example, early notice of rising water levels in the Kariba Dam on the Zambia/Zimbabwe border allows sufficient warning to be given to downstream communities on the Zambezi, as well as to operators at Mozambique's Cahora-Bassa dam to open their own sluice gates ahead of a water release.

But as far as a regional information system that spans all eight countries in Southern Africa's largest river basin, none of the SADC's systems are suited for the job, acknowledges the water programme officer of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Phera Ramoeli.

'In the Zambezi, we have a system called ZAMWIS, but ZAMWIS is more of a database system,' he told IPS on the margins of the technical group meeting in Livingstone.

The SADC-Hydrological Cycle Observing System (HYCOS), with 128 weather stations around the region sending information to a central point, is not working. While 108 of the 10,000 dollar stations were installed, only one out of five is actually transmitting information. Among the issues discussed by the technical group meeting in Livingstone was extensive rehabilitation to get HYCOS working properly.

But even if HYCOS were operational, it might not be what dam managers need. 'SADC-HYCOS was designed as an information-sharing system but not as an early warning as the case may be,' says Ramoeli.

The advisory group heard from consultants that detailed studies are still needed to understand how quickly rainfall in the river's upper reaches translates into higher water levels, and how floodwaters travelling down the river are affected by wetlands. Optimal management of dams for flood control, power generation and maintaining ecologically-sound seasonal flows requires this detailed knowledge as well as accurate and timely monitoring.

This underlines the urgency of the final ratification of a Zambezi Commission that can coordinate these varied activities.

'We still need to need to have an information system that would afford those countries with an early warning system,' Ramoeli acknowledges.

© Inter Press Service (2011) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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