Further navigation

• Basin Focal Projects
• Small Grants Program
• Competitive Call Projects
• Projects by Basin
• Projects by Theme
• Second Cycle Of Competitive Grants
• Synthesis
• Knowledge Sharing in Research project

17. IWRM for Improved Rural Livelihoods

Full Title:

The Challenge of Integrated Water Resource Management for Improved Rural Livelihoods: Managing Risk, Mitigating Drought and Improving Water Productivity in the Water-Scarce Limpopo Basin

Download project proposal [PDF 189Kb]

It is increasingly understood that integrated water resource management (IWRM) is required, not only to balance water for food and nature, but also to unlock paths to sustainable development. A global hot spot in terms of water for food and improved livelihoods is in the poverty-stricken rural areas of water-scarce semiarid tropics, such as in the Limpopo basin. Here, translating IWRM from concept to action still remains largely undone. Water policy and institutions are embedded in a conventional blue water framework, mainly concerned with (runoff) water supply for irrigation, domestic use and industry. This water resource strategy has limitations. Blue water resources for irrigation are overcommitted in the Limpopo basin, while the bulk of agricultural produce sustaining lives of resource-poor farmers originates from green water flows in rain-fed crop and livestock production.
 
Rain-fed agriculture is a risky business, due to recurrent droughts and dry spells. Despite these risks there is a large untapped yield potential even in the semiarid rain-fed areas. Water productivity, yields and thereby livelihoods can be improved, through integrated soil and water management for dry-spells and drought mitigation. Management practices are largely known. The challenge is to enable an adaptive process of participatory farm development, which is supported by institutions and policies based on an IWRM framework that incorporates all facets of managing green and blue water resources.

This proposal takes on the challenge of developing a framework for a new IWRM-based water governance from village to basin scale in the Limpopo basin, which integrates green and blue water management for improved rural livelihoods, while at the same time addressing water resources management at the catchment and basin scales. Participatory on-farm research from field to watershed will focus on the productive use of alluvial aquifers, shallow water tables, and surface runoff, using water-harvesting systems. The focus is on adaptive management for risk reduction, and yield and water productivity improvements. Trade-offs between upstream-downstream water uses will be studied, as well as options for improved irrigation efficiencies downstream.

The proposal will focus its research in three pilot catchments in Zimbabwe (Mzingwane), Mozambique (Chokwe) and South Africa (Olifants). The proposed 5-year project is coordinated by WaterNet, a SADC and GWP-supported network on research, and capacity building on IWRM in Southern Africa. The proposal includes 17 partners with long experience in water research and development in the Limpopo basin (13 NARES, 1 ARI, 2 CGIAR Centers, and 1 NGO). The proposal is action-oriented and founded on gender-sensitive and participatory methodologies, which will enable it to be a real partner in development.

The project will generate a new knowledge base on appropriate agricultural water management. Guidelines for catchment management will be developed and further upscaled to a needs-based IWRM framework for sustainable water for food development at the basin scale. The project has a strong focus on human capacity building, from farm to policy level. Knowledge will be integrated with WaterNet human capacity-building activities in Southern Africa, contributing to the training of a new generation of IWRM managers.