Challenges/issues faced by the catchment:

The Olifants river is the main tributary supplying water in the dry season to the KNP and transboundary flows into Mozambique. The river originates in South Africa’s Highveld with water quality impacted by unchecked pollution originating from coal mines, smelters and other industries, agriculture, municipality waste water etc. along the way. The river has experienced declining water quality but also decreased flows which threaten aquatic systems along the entire river. Inappropriate land and resource use, prolonged drought and climate change contributed to the water supply in the river drying up in the past. Furthermore poor enforcement of regulations has lead to the poor protection of habitats and biodiversity which impacted on the livelihoods of everyone along the catchment. Perhaps the biggest challenge was the poor governance in the catchment with the CMA not functioning due to challenges with institutional uncertainty within DWS. Poor monitoring and outdated data exacerbated the problem which made planning almost impossible.

•Approaches implemented to deal with the challenges/issues

An organisation took over the functioning of the CMA and implemented several strategies to ensure that the Reserve and the ecological integrity of river system is maintained. The main strategy was to develop an integrated approach to managing (operating) the catchment as a whole. The monitoring of the water quality and quantity in realtime made it possible to model the flow in the catchment and assisted in the lowering of the risk in the lower part of the river through the management/ controled release of water from the Blyde dam during low flow.

•Did it work?

The interventions worked but are temporary solutions and the underlying causes for the poor management of the catchment in the first place needs to be investigated and solved on a more permanent basis. A longer-term strategy for the catchment – or Water Management Area is required.

•What other approaches could have been implemented?

The temporary responses managed to control one aspect of IWRM – the resource directed measures but no mention was made of the source directed measures to control pollution at source.