Monitoring water resources, water use, water pollution and compliance

Monitoring water resources, water use, water pollution and compliance IWRM for River Basin Organisations

Monitoring Learning objectives • Learn the methods and management of monitoring • Water resources and water use • Pollution and water quality

Monitoring Why do we monitor? • For planning! • For enforcement!

Monitoring Demography and educational level Surface Water resources Health and sanitation Groundwater resources Water demand and use Basin characterisation Rainfall and evaporation Gender and Poverty Water quality and pollution sources Economical activities Biodiversity and environmental status Infrastructural development Land cover and use

Monitoring Monitoring for enforcement • Compliancy checks: • Direct monitoring • Indirect monitoring • Indicative monitoring COMBINATION IS PREFERRED!

Monitoring Our Water Management objectives. • Develop a reliable knowledge base of water resources availability as a basis for management; • Ensure the water allocation system is effective and permits are being complied with; • Ensure the pollution control system is effective and permits are being complied with.

Monitoring Who is responsible? The REGULATORY BODY has the overall responsibility for the monitoring. It does not mean that they conduct all the monitoring!

Monitoring Key for succeeding with monitoring of water resources and water quality: PRIORITISATION OF MONITORING STATIONS It is better with a few gauging stations that give reliable results than many stations that give uncertain results.

Monitoring Primary gauging stations – to give the reliable long-term measures. The requirements of accuracy and consistency of these stations are very high. Secondary gauging stations – to support the primary stations but are more focused on compliance. Targeted to identify relative changes. Tertiary gauging stations – are temporarily set up for specific studies

Monitoring Monitoring surface water resources • Primary stations: • An even coverage over the river basin • Some should target natural flow conditions; • Enable accurate and consistent measurements • Easily accessible • Not more than 10

Monitoring Monitoring surface water resources • Primary stations: • Well maintained! • Well paid and educated observers! • Logging equipment!

Monitoring Monitoring surface water resources • Secondary stations: • Cover upstream abstractions • Target major users • May be operated during only parts of the year • As many as resources allows

Monitoring Monitoring groundwater resources • Concentrated investigations to assess availability • Monitoring of groundwater levels to assess changes (primary + secondary)

Monitoring Funding • Primary - Government • Secondary – indirect by stakeholders • Tertiary – direct by stakeholders In practice: one pot of money

Monitoring Monitoring of abstracted water • Based on the pump capacity and time of operation • Area of irrigated land • Based on fees generated from sold water (utilities) • + NORMALLY NO LARGE EXTRA COSTS • - CONTROL MEASUREMENTS NEEDED!

Monitoring Funding • Allocation Fees • Self-monitoring - direct by stakeholders • Control – indirectly by stakeholders

Monitoring Monitoring of water quality • In the river: • Primary – at primary runoff stations  load • Secondary – only concentration  relative changes • Point sources: • Self-monitoring (and reporting) • Spot checks PRIORITISATION OF PARAMETERS

Monitoring Monitoring of water quality • Sampling + laboratory analysis needs quality control. • In-situ measurements of indicative parameters (Cond. pH, DO) • Two issues to think about • Frequency • Comparability

Monitoring Funding • In the river: • Primary - Government • Secondary – indirect by stakeholders • Point sources: • Self-monitoring - direct by stakeholders • Control – indirectly by stakeholders PROBLEM: laboratory analysis expensive!

Monitoring Don’t forget! • No monitoring is meaningful if the results are not managed, used and disseminated back to the stakeholders

Monitoring How are you doing? • Is there compliance with water allocation permits? • Is there compliance with pollution permits? • Is the groundwater and surface water monitoring network producing reliable and usable data? • Are groundwater levels declining?

Monitoring Conclusions • Monitoring is made for both planning and compliance purposes. • Prioritisation must be made to ensure reliable data • Compliance should be monitored both through self-monitoring and through indirect measurements in the downstream rivers. • Emphasis should be given to good sampling and laboratory practices.

Monitoring water resources, water use, water pollution and compliance