Water scarcity and land degradation are key threats impacting the economic and social welfare of people living in the Limpopo River Basin. As such, the community could not hide its excitement about the prospects of the “Integrated Transboundary River Basin Management for the Sustainable Development of the Limpopo River Basin (UNDP-GEF Limpopo project),” addressing some of these challenges.  

“We are so pleased that the project is now under implementation,” said Chief Nobi Moilwa of Mogobane Village in Botswana when the project team visited the country in May 2023. He said his community would benefit from improved water management and supply from the Mogobane Dam for domestic and agricultural use. 

His Zimbabwean counterpart, Chief Jeffery Ndhlovu of Nhlamba Area in Gwanda, shared the same sentiments. He said his community was looking forward to working with the team to ensure the project's success in addressing the area's high levels of land degradation. 

Fast forward to the present
Stakeholder enthusiasm about the project is still high, as steady progress continues to uplift the living standards of the basin’s population and conserve the basin’s resources and ecosystem services through several interventions being executed at the community level.

For example, in close partnership with communities and local partners, the project has begun work to demonstrate on-the-ground Sustainable Land Management (SLM) activities at a pilot scale to reduce land degradation, including sedimentation. 

Four SLM sites have been identified, one each in the four LIMCOM countries -- Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The pilot sites are the Mogobane Dam in Botswana; the Massingir Dam in Mozambique; Mapochs in South Africa; and the Guyu-Chelesa in Zimbabwe.

At Guyu-Chelesa, community members are already implementing various activities to reduce land degradation and restore land to ensure maximum benefit from the basin's abundant natural resources. These activities include the construction of half-moons as an environmental conservation measure to capture and retain runoff water, reduce erosion, improve soil moisture, and promote plant growth.

In most of these SLM activities, women are leading the initiatives, demonstrating their important role in sustainable development. One of the beneficiaries, Patricia Siziba said the training rendered to them under the project had allowed the community to actively participate in the project and encourage more people to participate.

“Now that we know and understand the goals of the project and the purpose of SLM activities, we have even started pulling our resources together to ensure that the project is a success and that we also fully benefit from the project,” she said. The private sector in the area has been impressed by the work being done by the community and is now exploring ways to support some of the SLM activities.

The project has also made progress in further strengthening the capacity of member states to prepare effectively for floods and mitigate their impact through transboundary training of the Limpopo Flood Forecasting and Early Warning System. This is in addition to the institutionalization of the Regional Flood Forecasting Centre based in Maputo, Mozambique. The center is expected to boost efforts to ensure flood risks are minimized for low-lying areas of the basin, particularly in Mozambique, while providing valuable data on the dependent processes for basin coastal ecosystems.

Through knowledge exchange, the project participated and was showcased at the 10^th SADC River Basin Organization held in 2023, which provided a networking platform for river basin organizations and other partners in water and related sectors. An inter-basin exchange visit to the Orange-Senqu River Commission (ORASECOM) also gave the project team better understand transboundary water management interventions employable in the basin. 

Speaking at an overall project integration workshop for the project held in February 2024, Project Coordinator, Dr. Eddie Riddell said the valuable knowledge gained by the team will be critical in guiding and informing LIMCOM’s development path, particularly the development of the Limpopo Transboundary Diagnostic Analysis (TDA) and Strategic Action Plan (SAP). He said the integration workshop had also allowed technical partners in the project to fully understand and appreciate how they contribute to the overall programme over the next three years and the impact that the project is supposed to make in the Limpopo.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), together with the Global Water Partnership Southern Africa (GWPSA), are supporting the project, funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF). As the GEF implementing entity, the UNDP provides overall oversight of the project with GWPSA being the executing agency, while The Limpopo Watercourse Commission (LIMCOM) is the focal custodian of the project implementation.

About the project

The UNDP-GEF Limpopo project seeks to achieve integrated, cross-sectoral, ecosystem-based management of the Limpopo River to uplift the living standards of the basin’s population and conserve the basin’s resources and ecosystem services. It is being implemented in the four countries that share the Limpopo namely Botswana, Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.

For more information, please contact [Dr Eddie Riddell]: [eriddell@limpopocommission.org] or visit the project page on iwlearn.net

Words by Kizito Sikuka.