The Agricultural Research Council-Natural Resources & Engineering (ARC-NRE) is collaborating with the Department of Agriculture (DoA), the Department of Water & Sanitation (DWS), NB Systems, and the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) to implement a project funded by the Water Research Commission (WRC) entitled “Development of the Irri-Drop Report framework for regulating irrigation scheme performance in South Africa.” The project aims to develop a framework for assessing and reporting the water use performance of South African irrigation schemes. That framework is known as the Irri-Drop Report, which will a closely similar purpose to the No-Drop and Green Reports used to regulate water and wastewater management in South African municipalities.
The Irri-Drop Report Components
The Irri-Drop Report consists of a set of 9 assessment criteria: Water Balance Report, On-Farm Water Management Practices Report, Water Quality Management Report, Water Management Planning Report, Maintenance Planning Report, Condition Assessment Report, Technical Competency Report, Budgeting Report, and Credibility and Regulation Enforcement Report.
The assessment criteria are explained below.
(i) Water Balance Report
Its objective is to quantify water conveyance efficiency of the irrigation water infrastructure by comparing the volume of water released into the irrigation scheme and the volume delivered to users. The balance reveals the losses, which can be used to target infrastructure upgrades, operational improvements, and management interventions. The report also provides essential data input for assessment criteria including the Maintenance Planning Report, Condition Assessment Report, Budgeting Report and the Water Management Planning Report. The assessment criterion is implemented by leveraging and enhancing the existing Water Administration System (WAS), which is widely used across South African irrigation schemes.
(ii) On-Farm Water Management Practices Report
The aim of this criterion is to ensure good water management practices on irrigation farms. Water use on the farms should be based on water conservation practices where the farms strive for improved productivity and water use efficiency. The farms are assessed for use of modern and appropriate methods for determining crop water requirements. SAPWAT is the preferred for South African farms; hence, the farms will be assed on the use of SAPWAT for determining their crop water requirements. The farms are also assessed for accurate measurement of water supply using modern and acceptable technologies. Electronic water meters are now encouraged for all farms in South Africa. Use of appropriate methods of irrigation scheduling is also assessed with a thrust favouring the use of modern methods such weather data-based methods (SAWS data to be used) and monitoring of soil moisture content (the existence of soil moisture probes or devices and evidence that soil moisture data is used for irrigation scheduling are checked). The assessment will also check on the care and maintenance of irrigation water application systems on the farms.
(iii) Water Quality Management Report
The objective of the criterion is to protect receiving waterbodies from pollution caused by irrigation return flow. Therefore, the idea is to encourage irrigation water usage that generates return flows with minimum negative impact on receiving water bodies and the environment. The return flow water quality needs to comply with acceptable standards such as Water Quality Standards for Agriculture. The level of contaminants in the return flow is checked against the No Effect Range i.e. the range of concentrations at which their presence does not have known or anticipated adverse effects on the fitness of the water for a particular use.
(iv) Water Management Planning Report
The criterion is geared at steadily improving water use efficiency over time throughout the water supply-use value chain including the return flows. It provides comprehensive information for planning how water management in the schemes can be improved by setting continuous management improvements targets. Water conservation measures in place at the irrigation scheme are assessed against the agricultural sector WCDM recommended measures. Modernization of water conveyance infrastructure and irrigation equipment geared at minimizing wastage of water are assessed. Water allocation is also evaluated with a view to enhance equitable distribution to facilitate access by the different user groups and optimal utilization of the wate. The sufficiency and accessibility of information to key stakeholders, especially the water users who need to be fully informed on new approaches to improve water use efficiency will also be assessed, as well as the water measurement strategies in place.
(v) Maintenance Planning Report
The aim is to assess if the water infrastructural elements are maintained in an optimal operating condition to reduce water losses and prevent service interruptions. This evaluates the compliance of maintenance practices to legislative and regulatory requirements, and to assess the extent to which maintenance practices have transitioned from reactive to proactive approaches e.g. use of prioritized maintenance schedules, contingency planning, and emergency response protocols. The component is implemented by auditing and complementing existing maintenance structures in irrigation schemes.
(vi) Condition Assessment Report
The criterion involves physical assessments of the water infrastructure, and the associated equipment based on an inspection and condition scoring approach. The component uses systematically guided multi-criteria assessment packages to guide the scoring process. The outcome of this assessment feeds into assessment criteria, e.g. the Maintenance Planning Report, because infrastructure conditions inform the measure and frequency of maintenance. The condition scoring will be based on a rating scale for it to be able to pinpoint defects. Many environmental variables influencing infrastructure performance will also be assessed.
(vii) Technical Competency Report
The criterion aims to ensure that water conservation and demand management (WCDM) becomes a responsibility across all the role players at an irrigation scheme i.e. the irrigation scheme must instill the relevant capacity and skills across the board to implement WCDM strategies, but the strategies are still implemented in a coordinated manner. The criterion will verify the individual team member responsibilities in the organizational organogram and other available information e.g. related vacant positions. The technical competencies of the structured teams on the organogram are assessed by, e.g. checking how well-defined the positions and job descriptions are, and checking the team member qualifications, experiences and courses attended. If roles are subcontracted to private companies (e.g., maintenance of infrastructure), the competency of the subcontractors are also assessed in the same way.
(viii) Budgeting Report
The objective is to evaluate how budgeting checks and balances are implemented. Therefore, the budget assessment will evaluate the adequacy of financial resources and appropriateness of the allocations to implement the plans and activities that support and improve water supply and usage. It will focus on the adequacy, appropriateness, and alignment of the available financial resources with the planned initiatives. Specifically, existing budget allocations, planned expenditures vs. available financial resources, cost breakdowns of planned activities, and financial risks will be evaluated. The assessment will not consider sources of funding. The assessment will be conducted through four main activities: analysing approved budgets, financial plans, and detailed cost estimates associated with planned or proposed activities, alignment analysis to compare budget allocations against requirements of each planned activity, gap analysis to identify shortfalls between budgeted funds and projected costs for full implementation, and prioritization check to evaluate if critical activities necessary for supporting the entity’s performance are sufficiently prioritized.
(ix) Credibility and Regulation Enforcement Report
This assesses the readiness of an irrigation scheme to put in place and/or to implement quality control strategies that ensure that the data collected, analyzed, and reported is credible. It also assesses the irrigation scheme’s capability to enhance local water resource regulations aimed at enhancing water supply and use efficiency and how these regulations are enforced and aligned with national legislation. Data on legislative provisions, Water Users Association constitutions, delegations, and related legal provisions will be assessed to establish the mandates of irrigation schemes in terms of water supply and use efficiency. The criterion will use self-regulation data requirements (information required in terms of Section 141 of the National Water Act), regulations, Resource Quality Objectives, water restrictions, Catchment Management Strategy and the Catchment Strategy, DWS Compliance Monitoring & Enforcement Standard Operating Procedures (DWS CME SOP Manual), amongst others. In addition to onsite observations at the irrigation schemes, complementary data will be sourced from the National Compliance Information Management System (NCIMS, the Enforcement Case Management System (ECMS), and the Integrated Regulatory Information System (IRIS).
Next steps
To objectively develop these criteria into tools that can independently be deployed to assess the performance of irrigation schemes, stakeholder participation is needed. Therefore, a survey to identify and locate the relevant stakeholders across South Africa will be conducted. Those stakeholders willing to participate in the development of specific assessment criteria will be invited to workshops where the factors and subfactors contributing to the assessments are identified and weighted. Stakeholder consensus on the factors and their relative contributions to a criterion is important for reducing biases. Therefore, a wide range of stakeholders and experts are expected to take the opportunity to participate in the upcoming workshops.
