OVERVIEW OF THE IMPACT OF MINING ON THE ... - IIED pubs

All Limpopo basin states have skewed population distributions, and experience large-scale migration from rural
areas to urban settlements. The Northern province of South Africa comprises mostly extensive rural
populations that occupy former Apartheid self-governing “homelands”. As a consequence a large proportion of
the basin’s population is extremely poor and lack access to basic services and amenities such as clean water
and adequate sanitation.
Similar to the Zambezi basin, land is a critically important resource throughout the Limpopo basin and the
livelihoods of residents and the national economies of all basin states depend (Chenje, 2000). However, the
specific types of land use that are practiced are controlled by climatic factors, water availability and, importantly,
by land tenure arrangements. A large proportion of the land in the Limpopo basin states is under communal or
customary forms of tenure, and land ownership is considered to be one of the major constraints to proper land
use and conservation (Chenje, 2000).
Overcrowding and insecure ownership in the smaller communal farming areas (e.g. the Levuvhu and Nzhelele
sub-catchments in South Africa) is a primary source of land degradation in the basin. This feature is a critically
important driver of poverty within the Limpopo basin and is associated closely with declining indices of per
capita agricultural production (Dalal-Clayton, 1997). In many parts of the Limpopo basin, progressive
urbanization has been accompanied by the development of peripheral “informal” settlements around the major
urban areas.
In comparison to the Zambezi Catchment, the Zimbabwe and Mozambique portions of the Limpopo Catchment
are considered to be poor and sparsely settled part, whilst the Botswana and South African sectors have far
higher numbers of people and are more densely settled (Table 4.2). In the Zimbabwe and Mozambique
portions, there are no large cities and the only towns of any size are the Matabeleland South provincial capital of
Gwanda in Zimbabwe, and the coastal town of Xai-Xai located close to the mouth of the Limpopo River in
Mozambique. The Mozambique sector of the basin has numerous small villages and settlements scattered
along the lower reaches of the Limpopo.
4.1.4 Hydrological characteristics, water availability and patterns of water use
The quantity and timing of rainfall received in the Limpopo basin controls the quantity, timing and duration of
flows in the different tributary rivers. The uneven distribution of rainfall in the basin is reflected in the very
uneven distribution of water resources in the four basin states. In turn, these influence the types of economic
activities undertaken by the residents in each country. The uneven distribution of water across the basin has
led to tensions and occasional disputes between some of the basin states regarding what can be constituted as
a “fair and equitable share” of the available water resources (Ashton, 2000).
The Limpopo and its larger tributaries all exhibit marked seasonal cyclical patterns of high and low flows and
many of the smaller tributaries are entirely seasonal or episodic. As mentioned earlier, the Limpopo River
shows a very marked pattern of seasonal flows and, in dry years, surface flows cease altogether though water
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