Objectives

The overall objective of the project is capacity building to improve safe water supply and protect riverine biodiversity in rivers of southern tropical Africa, as laid out under Goals 2 and 3 of the United Nations Millennium Development Goal to “Ensure environmental sustainability”, focusing on environmental research activities (specifically addressing the issues of “loss of biodiversity”, and “establishing efficient mechanisms for access to and the adaptation of appropriate foreign technology”). The project involves a partnership of Universities and stakeholder agencies institutes from Zambia (University of Zambia; Kasanka Trust), South Africa (University of Cape Town; North-West University) and the UK (Universities of Aberdeen and Glasgow), and has two main objectives: (i) to build the local capacity (amongst partnership members and relevant stakeholders such as water management agencies) needed to construct cheap, effective biomonitoring procedures to assess river water quality and support biodiversity functioning in rivers of southern tropical Africa, using Zambia and northern South Africa as the initial target regions for the Action; and (ii) to promote and strengthen the ability of local water management agencies to assess water quality and riverine biodiversity support functioning in southern tropical African rivers, by utilising the enhanced research capability and knowledge gained by them during the project to further develop the pilot scheme produced as an output of the project, into a viable methodology for implementation within the target region. A main focus of the project will be the construction of a pilot biomonitoring scheme to help assess river health (including biodiversity support capability and minimum ecological flow requirements etc.), and a utilization of the improved capacity of the network partners and stakeholders to undertake a testing programme for the pilot biomonitoring scheme in South African and Zambian rivers; and demonstration of application of the new scheme in relation to river flow management procedures aimed at maintaining riverine biodiversity, in order to inform research and implementation policies in southern tropical Africa.