Political boundaries shown may not be accurate
South African National Committee on irrigation and Drainage
Population (M): 59
Geo. Area (Km2): 122,341
Irrigated Area (Mha): 1.6
Drained Area (Mha): 0.06
Sprinkler Irrigation (Ha): 920,059
Micro Irrigation (Ha): 365,342 Major River Basins (Km2): Orange, Limpopo, Zambezi, and Okavango river basins
Box 515, Silverton, South Africa, 0127
National Committee Directory+
Private Bag X 03, Gezina 0031
Private Bag X 03, Gezina 0031
Private Bag X 03, Gezina 0031
Country Profile-
Geography
Located on the southern tip of Africa, the Republic of South Africa stretches between the longitudes of 17º to 33ºE and latitudes of 22º to 35ºS. Namibia bounds the country on the north-west side, while Botswana and Zimbabwe are located to the North, Mozambique and Swaziland are on the north-east. Lesotho, a landlocked country, forms an enclave within the Republic of South Africa. On the other three sides, South Africa is surrounded by oceans. The Republic has nine provinces - Northern Province, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape Province, Western Cape Province, North Cape Province, North West Province, Gauteng and Free State. The total land area of the Republic of South Africa is 122 341 Sq.Km. Topographically South Africa may be divided into four zones, the Plateau, the Escarpment, the folded Mountains and the Coastal Plain.
Population and land use
According to the Population Reference Bureau (2019), the population of South Africa is 59 Million. Land use statistics are as follows:
- Agriculture: Rainfed - 10,779,615 ha and Irrigated - 1 334 562 ha;
- Land used for pasture crops: Rainfed 1,736,614 ha and Irrigated 209,351 ha;
- Natural extensive grazing areas: 83,928,062 ha;
- Forests and woodlands: 1,179,000 ha;
- Other land use: 23,422,000 ha.
Only 14% (17 Mha) of the total area of South Africa is suitable for rainfed crop production and a mere 3% of this area is high potential land. The area under forestry and peri-urban smallholdings accounts for some 3 Mha of the better soils.
Climate and rainfall
South Africa is classified as a water scarce country and has an estimated average annual rainfall of 495 mm. Approximately 86% of the area of the Republic of South Africa lies in the summer rainfall area. A narrow belt along the southern coast, some 4 Mha in extent, receives rain during all seasons. 13 Mha in the southern western corner have a Mediterranean climate with winter rainfall and a dry summer. The rainfall decreases from east to west, from over 1 000 mm in the east to 50 - 100 mm in the Namib and Namaqualand areas in the west. The low-lying eastern coastal belt is hot and humid in summer. Because of the altitude, summer temperatures on the high inland plateau are generally lower than could be expected. Winter temperatures in the interior often drop to below zero and frost is common.
Water resources management
The average rainfall of South Africa is just over half of the world average. Rainfall is seasonal and highly variable. The total internal renewable surface water resources are approximately 50 x 109 m3/a, the maximum yield is 33.3 x 109 m3/a. A storage capacity of about 27 x 109 m3/a has been created through the construction of dams. Based on present trends in water use and population growth, South Africa is expected to reach the limits of its economically usable fresh water resources by the year 2030. Water requirements for irrigation are estimated at 10.7 x 109 m3/a or 53% of total water requirements of 20 x 109 m3/a during 2000. In addition, the maximum annual yield of groundwater is 5.4 x 109 m3 of which 2 x 109 m3 is exploited and 80% of this is used for irrigation.
Irrigation and drainage
Irrigation is an important factor in the production of permanent crops and in obtaining high yields from field crops. The distribution of irrigation capacity as in 1998 was that 15,000 medium and large-scale commercial farmers irrigated around 1.3 Mha divided into the following:
- 550,000 ha - Private schemes developed by owners to extract water directly from weirs, boreholes and farm dams; and for which there is no water charge at present.
- 400,000 ha - Irrigation board schemes which are privately managed, but were frequently developed with Government grants and subsidised loans. In future these schemes will be managed by water user associations (WUAs).
- 350,000 ha - Government schemes which were built and operated by the Government. Operating costs are charged to farmers at a subsidised rate. The membership of these schemes will also be transferred to WUAs in due course.
- 75,000 ha - Distributed among 40 000 small-scale farmers.
Water is used for the production of cereal, industry, horticulture, pasture and forage crops. Most of these crops are also grown in smallholder farms (Agriculture). Supplementation of variable rainfall through irrigation is conspicuously more important for high value (income) crops such as potatoes, vegetables, grapes, fruit and tobacco. Although grain and oilseed crops can be effectively grown under rainfed conditions, they will remain part of crop combinations under irrigation for production of seed and as rotational crops to maintain soil productivity. For the irrigated areas, 6 to 26% of soils have become waterlogged and salt-affected.
Water policies
Following the democratic elections in 1994, a total reform of water policy and water legislation was undertaken. A completely new National Water Act was promulgated in South Africa on October 1, 1998. Key elements and principles of the new Act are:
- The water resources in South Africa are a national asset.
- National Government i.e. the Department responsible for water resources will act as the custodian of the nation’s water resources.
- Water required to meet basic human needs and to maintain environmental sustainability will be guaranteed as a right. This will be known as The Reserve.
- The allocation of water will have the objective of achievement of equitable and sustainable economic and social development.
- The efficient use and the conservation of water will be promoted by the Act.
The National Water Resources Strategy, 2nd Edition which outlines the objectives of water resources management for the country and provides the plans, guidelines and strategies to achieve these goals.
The Irrigation Strategy of South Africa which identifies objectives, priorities, allocates responsibilities and ensures coordinated efforts and estimates realistic funding, as well as sets out the principles for initiatives which are being undertaken to revitalize and expand irrigation schemes in the country.
The main points on the action agenda, which can be highlighted, are as follows:
- Achieving policy goals of social equity, economic efficiency, financial and environmental sustainability.
- Recognizing existing lawful water use, or in legal terms, water use which is beneficial in the public interest.
- Phasing out subsidies and recovering costs directly or indirectly from beneficiaries.
- Establishing black smallholders to improve household food security and reduce poverty.
- Implementing water conservation and demand management strategies.
- Registering all existing lawful water use, to enable the Department to manage water resources, to ensure fair share allocation, to protect the environment and to charge for water use.
- Issuing licences for water use, starting with the most water stressed areas.
ICID and National Committee
South Africa joined the ICID in 1992 and has been actively participating in ICID activities in Africa as well as on the international level. The 51st IEC meeting was held in Cape Town in October 2000. Mr David S van der Merwe (1997-2000), Mr. Felix Britz Reinders (2005-2008) and Dr. Gerhard R. Backeberg were elected as Vice Presidents of ICID. Mr. Felix Reinders is currently the President of ICID (2017-2020).
Events+
Date | Details | Location/Country |
---|---|---|
Nov 06, 2007 - Nov 09, 2007 | 2nd African Regional Conference on Irrigation and Drainage Theme - Theme: Contribution of rainfed and irrigated agriculture to poverty alleviation through increased productivity in Africa. NC Contact : Mr. Lehlogonolo Motsoko, Secretary, South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID), Box 515, Silverton, South Africa, 0127 |
Johannesburg, South Africa, South Africa |
Oct 22, 2000 - Oct 27, 2000 | 51st International Executive Council Meeting (IEC) NC Contact : Mr. Lehlogonolo Motsoko, Secretary, South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID), Box 515, Silverton, South Africa, 0127 |
Cape Town, South Africa, South Africa |
Oct 22, 2000 - Oct 27, 2000 | 6th International Micro Irrigation Conference Theme - Micro-Irrigation Technology for Developing Agriculture NC Contact : Mr. Lehlogonolo Motsoko, Secretary, South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID), Box 515, Silverton, South Africa, 0127 |
Capetown, South Africa |
Awards+
# | Category | Title | Description | Winner(s) | Year |
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1 | Workbody |
The 4th BPWA was presented to the Working Group on On-Farm Irrigation Systems (WG-ON-FARM) by the President Dr. Gao Zhanyi on the occasion of the 65th IEC and 22nd ICID Congress held at Gwangju, Republic of Korea, September 2014. The performance of a workbody is adjudged based upon a set of criteria and its contribution towards the mandate and mission of ICID. The Award was presented to Vice President Hon. Felix B. Reinders (South Africa), Chairman, WG-ON-FARM. |
Working Group on On-Farm Irrigation Systems (WG-ON-FARM) | 2014 | |
2 | Technology | SAPWAT 3: Irrigation Water Planning Tool |
|
Messrs Pieter S van Heerden and Charles T Crosby | 2011 |
3 | National Committee |
South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID) has won the 4th BPNC Award. The award was received by VPH Felix Britz Reinders from President Chandra Madramootoo on the occasion of the 62nd IEC and 21st ICID Congress held at Tehran, Iran, October 2011. |
South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID) | 2011 | |
4 | Technology | SAPWAT 3: Irrigation Water Planning Tool |
In South Africa, the major rivers are already over-extended, and irrigation uses about 60% of the total water supply; good planning and management of irrigation water are of utter importance to increase the efficiency of irrigation water use. Irrigation water managers required an easy-to-use planning tool to estimate water requirements and enable the supply of the right amount of water at the right time. A user-friendly computer model was developed that enabled irrigation water users to plan the amount of irrigation water required by an irrigation farm, an irrigation scheme, or a water management area monthly. This tool, SAPWAT, was a further development of CROPWAT and is being used by more than 300 users in 13 countries, even though it was designed against the background of South African needs. SAPWAT 3 the latest version of the computer model is not a crop growth model. It is designed to allow the user to imitate through interaction the situation in an irrigated field. This allows the user to do “what if” with different irrigation scenarios to see what the effect of a specific management decision is on irrigation water requirements. Some characteristics are as follows: Data Management: The program has the facility of data management including big data sets, the data is stored on board for easy access and addresses the limitations of web accessibility. CLIMWAT, CROPWAT weather data have been included along with daily data of 5,100 weather stations. Daily data for any number of successive years is used to do year-on-year irrigation requirement estimates, the result of which allows the user to include risk analysis as part of the planning process. Crops: 104 crops are included in the crops data now expanded to 2,500 crop records by providing for differences in growth and development because of different planting types at different times of the year and in different climates. Salinity stress and water stress situations can be imitated. This module works from two sides. The effect of stress on yield is displayed, or the user can also define a level of yield reduction to stretch the water need. If yield reduction is defined, the program will apply water stress so that yield reduction reflects the required level. All irrigation requirement estimates can be stored and revisited to determine what effect changes in irrigation water management, irrigation system and changes in planting dates could have. The editing functions of weather stations allow the user to adapt data to represent predicted climate change scenarios which can be used to predict irrigation water requirements under climate change situations. “Now-then what-if” scenarios could be set. Data can be exported for use in other applications such as for use in spreadsheets. A module for small (back-yard) water harvesting situations where the amount of water required for a small garden can be estimated. Runoff from roof and/or adjacent hard-packed surfaces and storage requirements are determined. Maximum garden size for balance with harvest area and storage is calculated. Pumping times with low technology pumps such as the treadle pump is also calculated. Large data sets can safely be handled. The weather data amounts to about 38 million records. SAPWAT3 Model: The program provides the user with the ability to manage all the background data that is used by SAPWAT3. These include crops, irrigation systems, soils, area water distribution systems, weather stations, enterprise budgets, countries, and an address list. Köppen climate definitions are also given, but these are read-only. The user does an area, farm, field, crop set-up to reflect the area of work. Provision is made for back-wards summation of crop irrigation requirement to field, farm, and area irrigation requirement. The efficiencies of irrigation water reticulation systems at different levels are included in this calculation. The crop for which irrigation requirement needs to be estimated is defined in terms of weather stations and climate, soil type, irrigation system, planting date, foliage cover, yield, area planted, and irrigation management strategy. For year-on-year irrigation requirement estimates, subsets of the weather data, such as a period that is known to have had a below-average rainfall, can be selected. The results are graphically displayed as crop coefficient, evaporation, and crop evapotranspiration as well as soil water content over the growing season. Further results show monthly and total irrigation water required for different levels of non-exceedance, as well as levels of efficiency of irrigation water use and rainfall use efficiency. Daily water balances can be inspected, specifically for identifying water stress situations. SAPWAT3 is used by irrigation designers in South Africa to optimize water use to its fullest extent. One such case is short grower maize planted on 15 December. If the irrigation strategy is to make the best possible use of rainfall by not filling the soil profile to field capacity during irrigation, the irrigation water required is 320 mm. If the irrigation strategy is changed to always fill the soil profile to field capacity, which results in low rainfall use efficiency, the irrigation requirement is 500 mm. Irrigation water-saving by using the better strategy amounts to 180 mm, or 36%. If this saving is translated to the 1.5 Mha irrigated in South Africa, total annual irrigation water-saving could amount to 27,000 MCM. The SAPWAT3 has been fully endorsed by the Department of Water Affairs in South Africa as a tool to issue water licenses for irrigation purposes. A survey amongst users about one year after publication shows that 51% found it a useful tool and that 46% found it easy to use. Apart from application in South Africa, SAPWAT3 has been used in Angola, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Swaziland, and Uzbekistan for irrigation system design and irrigation water use planning. |
MESSRS PIETER S VAN HEERDEN AND CHARLES T CROSBY’S WORK | 2011 |
5 | Innovative Water Management | Water distribution management at the Vaalharts irrigation scheme |
The Vaalharts irrigation scheme is situated at the confluence of the Harts and Vaal rivers on the border between the North West and the Northern Cape provinces in South Africa. It is the largest irrigation scheme in the country, with a scheduled area of 29,181 ha. The scheme consists of a network of canals covering a distance of more than 100 km supplying water to about 1,873 abstraction points through pressure regulating sluices. Vaalharts water distribution practices suffered from the limitations of a manual system including higher labour force requirements, calculation/estimation errors, indirect method of estimation of releases, difficulty in incorporating the changes in demand, individual’s experience, and information collation in the distribution management making the water use efficiency reports time consuming and inaccurate. The weekly water distribution management practices at Vaalharts Water were very labour-intensive. Moreover, preventing water losses and maintaining a good rapport with farmers was becoming increasingly difficult for the management. These limitations were overcome by developing and introducing a computerized system in the form of the Water Administration System (WAS). Water orders were captured directly by water control officers, calculation errors were eliminated, water balances were updated daily, conventional charts were replaced by digitized systems, and release volumes were computed weekly instead of earlier monthly volumes. The water distribution sheets were modified quickly incorporating the changes in the demand and water use efficiency reports were generated automatically with the WAS. The computer system facilitated the water control officers to carry out more inspections and minor repairs like canal leakages and breakages which were easily monitored while maintaining a timeline for clients. Productivity vastly improved with reliable water use efficiency reports produced using WAS. The water control officers developed a positive attitude as their administrative responsibilities were reduced and they could invest more time in strategic planning. Water losses on the scheme decreased from 32% to 26.7% in a single year due to WAS’s efficient mechanisms. The implementation of the WAS program made water-savings at Vaalharts Irrigation scheme sustainable with the potential for future advancements. As the proficiency and knowledge of the personnel increased, the accuracy of supplying the correct amount of water to the right place at the right time improved, and more water was saved. Sharing close ties with Vaalharts irrigation scheme, Taung irrigation scheme was also recommended to adopt a similar approach under the guidance and supervision of the team. The use of modern tools and Information Technology could improvise water management practices in terms of computations as well as infrastructure maintenance ensuring easy experience sharing and a seamless knowledge transfer. |
Mr. Kobus Harbron | 2010 |
6 | Innovative Water Management | Provision of Irrigation Scheduling Advice to Small Scale Sugarcane Farmers Using a Web Based Crop Model and Cellular Technology: A South African Case Study |
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Dr. Abraham Singels | 2007 |
7 | Innovative Water Management |
The Water Administration System (WAS) is designed to be a water management tool for irrigation schemes, Water User Associations (WUA’s), Catchment Management Agencies (CMA’s), and water management offices that want to manage their water usage, water distribution, and water accounts. The main aim during the development of the WAS program was to minimise water losses for irrigation schemes that work on the demand system and that distribute water through canal networks. Currently the WAS program is in use at all the major irrigation schemes cross South Africa and it manages an irrigated area of more than 142 000 ha including 9 500 farms. The main benefits of using the WAS program is:
TYPES OF APPLICATION WAS is an integrated database driven system with many water management capabilities. WAS can be implemented in a small water office that manages a few abstractions and measuring stations up to a CMA level that manages thousands of abstractions and measuring stations. WAS is used for the efficient administration of:
The WAS program saves all information in a Firebird database that can be installed on a single PC or on a server for use over a network. This makes it possible for the scheme manager, accounts personnel and water office personnel to access the database from PC's in their own offices. There is no limitation on the number of PC's that can be linked to the database. What makes the WAS program unique is the fact that it is an integrated system that includes the water allocations, water use, water distribution and billing information. WAS will generate monthly invoices automatically using water usage or scheduled areas information captured in the database. Different user names and passwords can be used to control access to certain information in the database. |
Dr. Nico Benad | 2006 |
Recognized World Heritage Irrigation Structures+
Workbody Representation+
# | Abbreviation | Workbody |
---|---|---|
1 | AFRWG | African Regional Working Group
Prof. Dr. Sylvester Mpandeli (Vice Chair), |
2 | PCSO | Permanent Committee on Strategy and Organization
Prof. Dr. Sylvester Mpandeli (Member), |
3 | TF-WWF10 | TF to Guide ICID Inputs to 10th World Water Forum
Prof. Dr. Sylvester Mpandeli (Member), |
4 | WG-CLIMATE | WG on Global Climate Change and Agrl. Water Mgmt.
Prof. Sue Walker (Member), |
5 | WG-IDM | WG on Irrigation Development and Mgmt.
Dr. Khumbulani Dhavu (Member), |
6 | WG-M&R | WG on Modernization and Revitali. of Irrig. Schemes
Mr. Jan Potgieter (Member), Dr. Macdex Mutema (Member), |
7 | WG-SON-FARM | WG on Sustain. On-Farm Irrig. Sys. Development
Mr. Siboniso Phillip Mkhaliphi (Member), |
8 | WG-WFE-N | WG on Water Food Energy Nexus
Prof. Dr. Sylvester Mpandeli (Observer), Dr. Luxon Nhamo (Provisional Member), Prof. Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi (Member), |
9 | WG-ENV | Working Group on Environment
Dr. Michael van der Laan (Vice Chair), |
10 | WG-LDRG | Working Group on Land Drainage
Prof. Aidan Senzanje (Member), |
11 | WG-SDRG | Working Group on Sustainable Drainage
Prof. Aidan Senzanje (Member), |
12 | WG-WATS | Working Group on Water Saving in Irrigated Areas (WG-WATS)
Dr. Khumbulani Dhavu (Provisional Member), |