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Demand Management strategy. In Ghana, the water restructuring
secretariat introduced Water Demand Management in the regulatory
framework and in the national water policy. In Johannesburg Water
Demand Management generated sufficient savings in water demand
to justify the cancellation of a project to build an additional water
reservoir, while in Addis Ababa, despite a growing population and
drought, demand management resulted in a USD 1.6 million savings
to the government per year (UN-HABITAT undated).
IMPROVING WATER QUALITY AND YIELDS
Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) seeks to improve water quality
and yields through better management of watersheds. PES is a
management strategy, which focuses on maintaining the flow of an
ecosystem service such as clean water, biodiversity habitat or carbon
sequestration capabilities in exchange for something of economic
value. In Africa PES activities are still at conceptual stages, with few
exceptions such as the Lesotho Highlands Water Project in which
communities in Lesotho are reimbursed by the downstream water
users in the industrial Gauteng region of SouthAfrica for the provision
of watershed protection services. While South Africa pays about USD
2 million per year for water from Lesotho, the greatest benefit to the
communities is the improved livelihoods of the Lesotho Highlands
communities through better agricultural output from irrigated
farming as well as access to alternative energy to firewood through the
110 MW of hydro-electricity (Santho and Gemmil undated).
Dar es Salaam, which faces water shortages as a result of decreasing
flows and poor water quality in the Ruvu River, is mulling a payments
for watershed services initiative. Under this initiative communities
living in the river’s upstream catchments in the Uluguru Mountains
will receive incentives from the major industries in Dar es Salaam
in return for better farming methods and reduced deforestation,
which threaten vital hydrological functions performed by healthy
forest ecosystems. The initiative envisions developing a market for
watershed services inwhich beneficiaries of better river health, mainly
industry, will ‘buy’ services produced by land managers in the water
catchment. Besides illustrating the PES approach, the initiative also
provides an opportunity to explore how public-private partnerships
could work in Tanzania (Riddington and Scholler 2006).
ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF WATER
Through rainwater harvesting, groundwater access and desalinisation,
some cities are making efforts to ensure adequate water supplies.