Description:

There is an immediate opportunity with the implementation of a number of Low Flow Guaging Weirs and proposed Irrigation Diversions on the lower Gariep (Orange River - South Africa / Namibia.) By redesigning the downstream bed profile in order to create standing waves and incorporating this with step pools / vortex weirs, larvaecide applications could be more effectively administered. Monitoring and research whether remote or local would be improved. Tourism opportunities and destinations would be created. The concept is repeatable globally.

Relevant Activities:

Public awareness/advocacy Training Research and education Local capacity building Policy development Poverty reduction Technical assistance Integrated development planning. Looking at fast tracking the IWRM process with actions, further research on plague control measures and opportunities.

Target Area:

Gariep Basin. Lesotho, South Africa and Namibia downstream of the Lesotho Highlands Water Scheme, Lake Gariep and the Van der Kloof developments. Rivers affected are the Senqu - Garieb continuum and inter basin transfers to the Tugela, Vaal and Great Fish Systems

Contact Details:

Kalahari Adventure Centre
Box 20
Augrabies Falls Village
8874
Northern Cape
South Africa

Additional Information:

Aims
To reduce the effects of the Blackfly Plague, to monitor toxic spills, organophosphates included, to assist in establishing a more beneficial flow regime, covering water quality, flushes etc.., to place concrete on bedrock, creating sustainable standing waves, to provide a effective research bases, accessible and online, to create sustainable tourism destinations, to create employment and knowledge, to enable the fish to swim upstream, to mitigate the current disaster of the destruction of local livelihoods, to create a Millennium Outcome.

Plague Control
Problems
The current manual method of larvaecide application, by pouring it off bridges, does not work. Helicopter applications are effective but limited by cost and prone to the limited local knowledge of the various pilots. Eskom controls the flow. The larvae have to be attacked at very specific times in their cycle. There is a very limited flow/temperature window where any effect is possible.

Solution
Eskom must agree to allow flow control at these times. At the re-engineered weirs, by even and continuous application of the larvaecide at the required flow and for the required period, a far more effective and quantifiable solution will be created.

Research
With standardized treatment locations, research and monitoring, both local and remote, will be greatly improved. Water quality could be better monitored with standardized sampling techniques and locations.

Options
Increasing the height of these impoundments could be potentially very beneficial from an environment and river health perspective. Various scenarios are possible with the increased ability to manipulate the flow. This appears to have great potential here on the lower Gariep ( Southern Namibian Border) where the lessening silt load is creating higher water temperatures and increasing the algae outbreaks. With future developments, an option to treat the water at these points becomes a future possibility. Small scale, "run of the river" generation options could also be included, or at least designed for.

Tourism and local development
Whenever a construction site is created, infrastructure is pushed through.
These are mostly in remote places and often scenically viable. If these construction camps are then somehow upgrade to a tourist standard and by empowering however the local landowners, we then have both an improved attraction and a tourism possibility.

Outcome
Waves, waves, waves, forever, for free.
New tourism development opportunities.
A lesser Plague of Blackflies
A less toxic river
Less dead fish
Less dead people
Less sick livestock
More fun
And the creation of the Surf South Africa 2020 project

Kiosk Manager

Andrew Hockly
TEL: 072 515 6079
Email: kalahari2@vodamail.co.za