Kinshasa – The results of the first practical experience in river catchment management in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were widely acknowledged at a workshop organized by the Environment Ministry and UN Environment in Kinshasa on 9 June.
Implemented from 2013-2016 in the Lukaya River basin. in collaboration with the DRC government, local communities, and academic institutions, the project strove to protect and rehabilitate one of the main watersheds supplying drinking water to the sprawling capital of Kinshasa. In addition to protecting drinking water supplies, the project’s integrated approach addresses several core development challenges including livelihoods and poverty reduction, food security and disaster risk reduction.
Presenting the 3-D participatory mapping model of the Lukaya river basin created by the local community.
A keynote presentation of the Lukaya Basin Integrated Water Resources Management Plan was made by the local watershed user association (AUBRL), demonstrating a high-level of community ownership and national endorsement of catchment-based planning. The comprehensive plan provides a shared vision guiding the development of the Lukaya River basin by reconciling multiple and conflicting priorities for water and land use, and details priority actions to be carried out from 2016-2018.
A number of innovations were developed in tailoring integrated river basin management to the DRC’s specific context, including emphasis on a community-led coordinating role, introducing a participatory agroforestry system as an alternative to slash-and-burn agriculture and implementing ecosystem-based rehabilitation measures to reduce disaster risks, particularly from floods and urban gully erosion. The project also invested in hydro-meteorological data collection and boasts the only functioning river discharge gauging stations in the DRC; offering a valuable training ground for young water professionals.
The project’s river discharge gauging stations provide a unique opportunity to train water experts from the DRC and the sub-region in measuring streamflow.
One of the strong arguments in favour of river catchment management is made by the national public water company (REGIDESO), which underscored the benefits from project interventions in reducing its drinking water treatment costs. In effect, REGIDESO operators reported that environmental rehabilitation measures had led to an ~85 percent drop in the stoppage of the Lukaya water treatment plant from an average of 300 hours to less than 40 hours per year. Reduction of organic and sediment pollution loads helped reduce the plant’s water treatment costs, which supplies over 400,000 residents in western Kinshasa with potable water. It is also noteworthy that the REGIDESO recently created an ‘IWRM and Environment Unit’ to help protect its investments in drinking water supply infrastructure.
Key project achievements include the establishment of a community-based agroforestry scheme underpinned by a benefit sharing agreement with a revolving fund allowing for progressive expansion of activities; use of vetiver bioengineering by neighbourhood committees to stabilize gullies; creation of a buffer zone to protect the intake of the Lukaya water treatment plant; and setting-up a hydro-meteorological monitoring network to collect data for catchment modelling, map flood risk zones and improve flood forecasting and early warning.
To sustain and scale up river catchment management planning, the DRC Government is exploring with donors and other partners the pilot project’s extension to the larger N’djili basin and its replication in the Batéke Plateau with support from the National REDD+ Fund. Promulgation of a national water law in January 2016 mandating that water resources be managed at river basin scale should also help promote replication of similar initiatives in the DRC’s priority watersheds.
