The issue of water scarcity is not isolated to drylands. Physical water scarcity means that water demand or withdrawals exceed or are close to exceeding water availability. Economic water scarcity means that even though water may be naturally present, human, institutional, and financial issues have limited access to clean water.
According to a UNEP Assessment of Water Scarcity, conducted in 2009, the majority of the Limpopo River basin is considered to be in a state of Physical Water Scarcity (McMullen and Jabbour 2009).
While a significant portion of southern Africa is physically water scarce, water scarcity in the region is primarily an economic factor, stemming from inadequate financial and human capital to tackle the problem and the governance structures necessary to support sustainable water resources development (Earle et al. 2006).
The map below is comes from a course scale assessment of global water scarcity (McMullen and Jabbour 2009). Therefore boundaries of the zones are likely not accurate at this scale.
WATER SCARCITY ASSESSMENT FOR THE LIMPOPO RIVER BASIN. SOURCE: MCMULLEN AND JABBOUR 2009
A discussion of water scarcity in the context of climate change is presented in the Climate Change section of this chapter.
The map below, generated from preliminary data collected during the Joint Limpopo River Basin Study Scoping Phase project (LBPTC 2010), shows estimated general water balance for the Limpopo River basin. It shows water stress in terms of run-off as a ratio of water use.
ESTIMATED GENERAL WATER BALANCE FOR THE LIMPOPO RIVER BASIN. SOURCE: LBPTC 2010
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Current ongoing initiatives.
LIMCOM's current ongoing interventions being undertaken
