IWRA Executive Office

abstract 828

SUSTAINALBEL AND BENEFICIAL USE OF NATIONAL DAM WATER RESOURCES IN SWAZILAND

Author(s): Jonathan I. Matondo, Kenneth M. Msibi
I an an associate Professor at the university of Swazilnd Department of Geography, Environmental Science and Planning. My research interests are in the areas of hydrology, hydraulics, water resources planning and management, computer applications to water resources related problems etc.

Keyword(s):

Article:

Poster:

Session: OS1k IWRM and water allocation

AbstractGlobally water

is unevenly distributed in time and space. In Swaziland the Highveld region receives high rainfall ranging from 1200 to

1500mm annually while the Lowveld region receives the lowest amount of rainfall ranging from 300 to 500mm

annually. The Planning, development and management of water storage and transmission facilities is an attempt to

change the spatial and temporal availability of water, to make it available where and when needed.

The

Government of Swaziland has undertaken the development of water storage and distribution facilities as a process

towards overcoming the unevenly distribution of the water resource. However, the current water storage facilities

with a total capacity of 568.65x106 m3 can not meet the water demand which stands at 1795x106 m3 annually. The

overall objective of this project was to develop an optimum and sustainable utilization decision support tool for water

allocation and rationing options for national water reservoirs.

A Decision Support System (DSS) is defined as

a user-oriented computer system which supports decision-makers in addressing unstructured problems. The

rationing mode in the developed DSS was used to distribute the available stored water at the beginning of April in

order to arrive at a priori predetermined reservoir storage level at the end of October. The DSS has three major

components and that is the model input, modeling options and outputs screens. The model input component

comprises of technical data (inflow, reservoir level, intended % volume at end of October and allowed lowest

rationing %), and policy data (uniform rationing or differential rationing). The modeling options comprise of

commands to determine optimum rationing %, provide % rationing and observed dam response and imposed

rationing %. The output of the DSS comprises of the optimal rationing (%), monthly reservoir volume from April to

end of October as well as a graphical representation of the reservoir response and the final recommendation. The

DSS also provides the total crop hectarage and thus the net benefits for the different initial and end of season

(October) for the corresponding optimal irrigation water rationing (%).

The results of the DSS with a starting

reservoir level at 15m at the beginning of April and a 10% reservoir level at the end of October, is that there is no

need for rationing (that is the water demand for all uses are met) and the reservoir level stands at around 29% at the

end of October. The results of the DSS with a starting reservoir at 6m at the beginning of April is that the rationing is

46% for all uses in order to arrive at a 10% reservoir storage level at the end of October is not recommended. This

is because, with 54% deficit, there is a danger of crops to wilt beyond recovery. The final DSS recommendation is

irrigation rationing at 60% (i.e. 40% water deficit) combined with a reduction of 14% of the hectares of irrigated

fields.

The Nyetane dam was used as a pilot reservoir in the development of the DSS. The developed DSS

with all the relevant input data can be used to allocate water efficiently in other reservoirs in the country.

Events

The congress

Programme

Practical Infos

SUSTAINALBEL AND BENEFICIAL USE OF NATIONAL DAM WATER RESOURCES IN SWAZILAND