Transboundary Water Management Workshop held in Johannesburg, South Africa from April 29-30, 2014.

1. Trans-boundary Water
Management Workshop
Group Discussion on Conservation
and Ecosystem Services
Johannesburg 29-30 April 2014

2. Content
Key challenges
Common experiences and lessons
Current research and development
priorities
Contributors for joint papers
Partner institutions for future
collaborations

3. Key challenges
Balance of development and conservation
Common challenges
◦ Secure development and growth
Poverty alleviation
◦ Trans-boundary compensation mechanism
◦ Lack of common monitoring infrastructure (different systems in different
sectors and countries)
◦ Ecological infrastructure (establishment and management)
Paddy fields
Artificial wetlands
Riparian strips
◦ Uneven distribution of water and climate variability
Seasonal (time), space and socially
◦ Water volume and quality management (surface and groundwater)
◦ Infrastructure implications to environmental conservation and ecosystems
Environment flow
Food security
Soil denudation
Biodiversity

4. Common experiences and
lessons
Africa: balance of development and conservation
China: restoration need; West part balance of development
and conservation
How Chinese investment could help?
Specific actions
◦ ZAMCOM
◦ ORASECOM
◦ SADC
◦ Platform between China and neighbouring countries
◦ Tarim River: Desertification of river system due to overuse (similar
to Chad)
Hydropower in Kirgistan
Irrigation in China
◦ Sharing hydrological data between China and Kazakhstan

5. Research
Disaster risk reduction (flood and drought)
Navigation (Not this group)
Environmental management
Fisheries (Zambesi)
Water supply (Not this group)
Mining and environmental impacts
Tourism and ecosystems
Operationalization ZAMCOM (Not this group)
Monitoring and planning
Irrigation and food security

6. Research priorities
Research or development?
Research in view of development (longer term): impact
research
1) Irrigation and food security
◦ NPS pollution (surface and groundwater)
◦ Salinity
2) Quantification of ecosystem services
◦ Flood control (disaster response)
◦ Water supply sustainability
◦ Water purification (wetlands and indigenous forests)
◦ Food provision (e.g. fisheries)
◦ Surface-groundwater interactions, environmental flow, baseflow

7. Research priorities
3) Conservation, restoration and management of ecological
infrastructure
◦ Paddy fields
◦ Wetland and dumbos
◦ Riparian strips
◦ Biodiversity, including control of alien species
3) EIA of dams
◦ Water
◦ Erosion
◦ Biodiversity
◦ Catchment conservation (population, human impacts, siltation)

8. Contributors
Potential for special issue of papers on
SA-China experiences in trans-boundary
water management
All participants of workshop

9. Partners for collaborations
Thsingua University
IWMI
Hohai University
Yunnan University
CSIR
GRIWAC
ORASECOM
ZAMCOM
SADC