Weir gauging station developed, upgraded
MBABANE – To ensure that countries within the Komati Basin Water Authority (KOBWA) use water sparingly and counteract the effects of climate change, a weir gauging station has been developed and upgraded at Mananga along the Komati River.
Eswatini and South Africa have commissioned the operation of the Mananga Weir Gauging Station, which will improve the water measurements and allocation for adequate abstractions and efficient use within the countries.
On Tuesday, officials from both the Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Republic of South Africa witnessed the handover of the E28 million gauging station by Raubex and Esso, a joint venture of construction companies from both the Kingdom of Eswatini and the Republic of South Africa.
The construction was carried out over one year, from November 2022 to December 2023.
The project was funded by the Government of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland (UKAID) and aimed to improve the water measurements, allocation for adequate abstractions, as well as the efficient use by all stakeholders in the Komati River system.
Strategic
The gauging station is very strategic as it measures the water flow as it passes from the Kingdom of Eswatini to service the needs of users in Eswatini, South Africa and Mozambique.
The weir gauging station that was handed over to the countries in the Komati basin has a crest of 90 metres, with two rectangular notches located adjacent to each other, to measure the river flow.
The low notch has a length of 15 metres, with the high notch length being 30 metres.
A total of 1 800 cubic metres of concrete was used to construct the structure.
The structure can measure a maximum flow of 260 cubic metres per second. It consists of a fishway/ladder to enable fish to migrate upstream of the river.
During the handover, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Energy Principal Secretary (PS) Dorcas Dlamini said the project was established in 2019 and 2020 by Eswatini and South Africa, through the Joint Water Commission.
It then identified collaborative partners to address the negative impacts that climate change presented on the availability of water.
“With the assistance of the Joint Water Commission (JWC) Secretariat, the Komati Basin Water Authority (KOBWA), an engagement was made with the Climate Resilient Infrastructure Development Facility (CRIDF) for an activity to improve water management in the Komati River Basin.
The resultant engagements and the funding opportunity by the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (UKAID), acting through the Department for International Development (DfID) yielded the formulation of a project - the Rehabilitation of the Mananga Weir Gauging Station, known in Eswatini as Gauging Station 30 (GS 30) for the repairs of the weir, the reconstruction of the gauging hut and the provision of telemetric equipment for easy transmission of the status of the river (height and flow),” she said.
The project aimed to improve water measurements and allocation for adequate abstractions and efficient use by all stakeholders in the Komati River system.
Dlamini noted that even though the gauging station was in the boundary of Eswatini, it served the Komati system as a whole and in addressing the water sharing agreement (Pigg’s Peak Treaty of 1991) as the system assumes no boundary and was for the benefit of the two riparian States (Eswatini and South Africa), with Mozambique as a downstream beneficiary.
She appreciated the collaborative effort with the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs in addressing climate change impacts on the water sector, through the development of water-related concepts to attract Green Climate Funds.
“We hope to enhance our collaborative efforts for increased activities to enhance our achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) six of Clean Water and Sanitation with the different targets on water resources, sanitation, hygiene and transboundary compliance,” she said.