Environmental flows workshop

Okavango River from Aquarap 2000

Hydrologists, geohydrologists, geomorphologists, aquatic chemists, ecologists and socio-economists from Angola, Namibia and Botswana are meeting this week in Maun to delineate the Okavango River into homogenous zones within which sites for environmental flow assessment study will be selected. The environmental flow assessment study is part of the Transboundary Diagnostic Assessment (TDA) being carried out by UNDP/GEF funded Environment Protection and Sustainable Management of the Okavango River Basin (EPSMO) Project. The EPSMO Project is a project of the Permanent Okavango River Basin Water Commission (OKACOM). The Biokavango Project is also contributing to the funding of the workshop and the environmental flow assessment study for the Okavango Delta. National teams in Angola, Namibia and Botswana will work with a Process Management Team and will complete the Environmental Flow Assessment (EFA) component of the TDA by July 2009. The Process Management Team is headed by renowned environmental flow assessment expert, Dr Jackie King from the University of Cape Town, who won the Women in Water Award of South Africa in 2003.

This week's workshop will select sites, develop indicators, and identify possible future development scenarios that may affect flows of the Okavango Rivers. HOORC water specialist Dr Dominic Mazvimavi is leading the work. You can find the 2007 report of the Planning Workshop for an Environmental Flow Assessment Study for the Okavango Delta in HOORC's Library.