African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

African Water Development Report 2006It is important to note that the Dublin Principlesexplicitly calls attention to the essential roleof water, not only for development, but also forlife and the environment. It is therefore urgentto recognize the legitimate use of water for sustainingthe environment, especially the life-supportingfunctions of ecosystems. This recognitionshould be reflected in the generation of a broadbasedsupport and a legal basis for ensuring thatwater for maintaining the sustainability of lifesupportingecosystems is adequate in quality andquantity. This requires recognising and integratingthe cardinal roles played by water resourcesin economic development, sustaining the environmentand meeting basic needs for sustaininglife. This means going beyond the normal engineeringexercise of environmental impact assessmentof water projects to consider the environmentand ecosystems as vital resources. MostAfrican countries have slowly begun to initiateexercises of estimating ecological water needsas table 6.10 shows for Swaziland (AWDR NationalReport, 2005). Technological innovationand application can go a long way to make agriculturemore sustainable without excessively occupyingmore lands. New technologies made itpossible to double food production in the worldin just over 25 years, with more than 90 per centof this growth deriving from yield increases andless than 10 per cent from area expansion. Africacan also take advantage of the dissemination ofIntegrated Pest Management approaches whichhave enabled pesticide application to be cut dramaticallywithout reducing productivity.Table 6.10 Estimated stream flows required to meet environmental needs in variousrivers in SwazilandRiver Key point Interim target in-stream flow mean (10 6 m 3 /yr)Komati Diepgezet (RSA*) 190Komati Mananga (GS30) 200Pongola Ndumo (RSA) 300Ngwavuma Border with RSA 50Mkhondvo GS 25 35Hlelo GS 22 35Ngwempisi GS 21 30Usutu GS 23 20Usutu Big Bend (GS 16) 520Mpuluzi Dumbarton 65Lusushwana GS 33 35*Point on the Republic of South Africa (RSA) side nearest to the border with Swaziland(Source: AWDR National Report, 2005. (TPTC, 2002)The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) isbecoming a single indicator for monitoring theenvironment. The ESI is an innovative and pioneeringattempt to bring systemic cross-countryinformation to bear on the critical challenge ofsustainable development. The computation ofthe ESI is based on 21 elements of environmentalsustainability covering natural resourceendowments, past and present pollution levels,environmental management efforts, contributionsto protection of the global commons, anda society’s capacity to improve its environmentalperformance over time. The ESI can therefore bea very useful tool for facing the challenges of resourcedepletion and the lack of capacity for pollutioncontrol which are becoming the dominantconcerns in many African countries. Figure 6.13shows the performance of various African countriesin the world ranking of ESI in 2002 and theAfrican ranking for 2005.150