In a novel landscape, in the Eastern Cape, South Africa, what are the key vegetation resources that support livestock production?
- Authors: Liversage-Quinlan, William Peter
- Date: 2021-10
- Subjects: Mzimvubu River Watershed (South Africa) , Livestock productivity South Africa Mzimvubu River Watershed , Range ecology South Africa Mzimvubu River Watershed , Land degradation South Africa Mzimvubu River Watershed , Vegetation dynamics South Africa Mzimvubu River Watershed , Novel landscapes
- Language: English
- Type: Master's theses , text
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/190053 , vital:44959
- Description: The Tsitsa River is the largest remaining river that is without a dam in South Africa, and so the government has pledged to install two major dams for irrigation and hydroelectricity, under the Mzimvubu Water Project. These dams are intended to supply water and electricity to surrounding communities as well as the large neighbouring urban areas of Mthatha and Tsolo. However, large areas of the Tsitsa Catchment (~494 000 ha) are degraded, posing the possibility that if these dams were to be created, they would inevitably fill with sediment and silt within a few decades. To address these issues, the Tsitsa Project was established in 2014 to co-ordinate actions by government, developers and local communities in order to restore the landscape condition and prevent soil erosion, as well as to improve the livelihoods of the people who live there (Fabricius, Biggs, & Powell, 2016). Research into the landscape condition as well and the environmental interactions with local communities are therefore highly necessary in order to guide restoration practices to their best effect. The economic necessity for livestock production in the catchment indicates its urgent need for a better understanding of its current effects on the catchment landscape and vegetation. The overall goal of this study is to contribute to the knowledge needed to manage the area in a sustainable way. This paper will therefore examine the key vegetation resources that support livestock production in an area of the Tsitsa River Catchment, by describing the various types that exist, and by determining their relative production levels of usable livestock forage. , Thesis (MSc) -- Faculty of Science, Institute for Water Research, 2021
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- Date Issued: 2021-10
Civil society engagement with water governance at a local government scale in South Africa
- Authors: Weaver, Matthew James Thanduxolo
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Government accountability -- South Africa , Civil Society -- South Africa , Political participation -- South Africa , Local government -- South Africa , Water supply -- Management , Water resources development -- South Africa , Water quality management -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/151316 , vital:39051
- Description: The South African state’s ideological commitment to a participatory approach to managing water resources and delivering services in a way that includes all stakeholders warrants critical analysis.Realising this ideological commitment has proved challenging, due largely to the complex historical, political, social, and environmental context of integrated water resource management (IWRM) in South Africa. The overarching aim of this study was to explore and expand the learning of civil societyparticipating in water governance processes at a local government scale. To address this aim a single, in-depth, four-year case study into civil society participation in water governance in the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa was conducted between 2014 and 2018. The case study comprised two research phases. Both phases of the research were conducted using an adaptive transdisciplinary and participatory action research approach underpinned by General Complexity Theory. Located at the research-practice interface, the study sought to be transformative and advance both scientific research and societal goals. Qualitative research methods and inductive and deductive modes of inference were used to collect and analyse the data respectively. In the first phase of the study, a Communities of Practice theoretical framing was adopted to investigate the emergence, practice and learning of a civil society organisation (CSO), Water for Dignity (WfD), in response to household water service delivery issues in the municipality. This phase served to build an understanding of factors that enabled and constrained the practice of WfD in addressing local water service issues, and of their role as social learning agents in building water-related knowledge in their community. As participation with the first civil society organisation fragmented, the opportunity arose for local government, the National Department of Water and Sanitation and civil society to co-engage. This opened up the second phase of the research during which the role of a multi-stakeholder platform, the Makana Water Forum (MWF), in enabling democratic water governance was investigated. The MWF was South Africa’s first catchment management forum with an integrated water service and water resource management agenda. In this phase, the study drew on interventionist methodology, Change Laboratory, from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) to 1) describe the historical development, composition and shared purpose of the MWF multi-activity system constellation; and to 2) guide participants through seven learning actions (expansive learning cycle) to identify, analyse, model and implement remedial actions to problematic aspects (contradictions) of the MWF practice. Participants of the Change Laboratory workshops built their individual and collective transformative agency (deliberate actions to transform a problematic situation) as they navigated the expansive learning process. The development of this agency was identified through a micro-analysis of agentive talk. The two phases served to advance the exploration of civil society participation from informal participation to address water issues, to formal participation in water governance processes at a local government scale. Findings from the first phase of the research revealed that dedicated and sustained support of partners with distributed expertise and the highly motivated core members of WfD enabled the practice and emergence of the civil society organisation. However, factors such as poor internal leadership, power dynamics between supporting partners, socio-economic constraints and a deeply embedded lack of agency were found to be key constraining factors to WfD’s practice. Findings revealed that learning at WfD team level occurred in four ways, through learning as belonging, learning as doing, learning as experiencing and learning as becoming. The WfD CSO was able to catalyse social learning related to personal water rights; and best practices for improving water quality and water conservation in their wider community of practice. Social learning was fostered mainly through structured citizen engagements offered by WfD. The research provides evidence that civil society organisations can play an important role in bridging water-related knowledge gaps and can foster active citizenship in South African communities. However, despite significant inputs of support and resources through the engaged transdisciplinary research process, the practice and learning outcomes of WfD had a marginal transformative impact on improving the citizen’s every-day water service experiences. Findings from the second phase of the study revealed the MWF to resemble a multi-activity system constellation with a multiple, partially overlapping. interests related to the management of water. The establishment, function and contradictions constraining the function of the MWF were influenced by past cycles of participatory water governance-related activity and practice at national and local scales. Through the Change Laboratory process, 25 contradictions were identified that appeared to constrain the ability of the MWF to enable inclusive and meaningful participatory water governance. Through a process of expansive learning, participants sought to overcome three sets of contradictions grouped as Problem Themes: lack of clear focus of the MWF; representation, representivity and nonattendance; and the MWF relationship with the Makana Local Municipality. Remedial actions modelled and those enacted have improved aspects of the function of the MWF (such as diversified modes of engagement and a more focussed agenda) but have only resulted in incremental shifts towards enabling improved participatory practice, most markedly in building a collaborative relationship and trust between the MWF members, municipal and government officials. The microanalysis of agentive talk revealed seven different expressions of transformative agency. Constraining socio-economic and political conditions and the limited capacity of the coordinating committee of the MWF hindered the development of transformative agency to the extent to which concrete actions were implemented. Findings further revealed that contextualising a Change Laboratory process within the adaptive cycle of a complex social-ecological system, and the particular opportunity context the system presents, could inform the enactment of agency and its potential impact on the transformation of the system. The intervention with the MWF was too short a process to clearly observe the effects of transformative actions on the sustainability of the Makana Local Municipality water system. However, long-chain transformative agency through the development of one-on-one engagements, learning journeys and a reflexive component to the MWF engagements could support transformative pathways to sustainability in the municipality and water management system. The study contributes in-depth insight into the key role of learning as a catalyst in transformative processes. Learning improves the collaborative and adaptive capacity of people, and therefore, water management institutions, to manage explicitly for the complexity inherent in “complex” socialecological systems. It provides empirical evidence as to what enables and constrains “real” participation and learning in grass-roots water governance processes in the context of a shifting national drive towards a more adaptive and developmental Integrated Water Resource Management approach. It further provides methodological contributions to 1) the application of the Change Laboratory method with multi-activity system constellations in developing world contexts and 2) value and limitations of extended and engaged transdisciplinary research. Lastly, it provides practical recommendations to the establishment and sustainable function of both community-based CSOs and multi-stakeholder platforms engaging in water governance processes.
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- Date Issued: 2019
An exploration of the way in which values and valuing processes might strengthen social learning in water stewardship practices in South Africa
- Authors: Barnes, Garth
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Integrated water development -- South Africa -- Case studies , Water conservation -- South Africa -- Case studies , Water-supply -- Moral and ethical aspects -- South Africa , Environmental education -- South Africa , Social learning -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1975 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012940
- Description: This qualitative study, focussing on the way in which values and valuing processes might strengthen social learning in water stewardship practices in South Africa, is located within the broader global narrative that describes the scale of human impact on our Earth systems and that is setting humanity on a trajectory that threatens to place us beyond the safe operating spaces called planetary boundaries. For humanity to live within planetary boundaries – one of which is global freshwater use –will take a new way of relating to the environment called Earth stewardship, which calls for a new ethic of responsibility towards Earth systems. It is at the local level of stewardship within a global approach to water resources management called integrated water resources management that this qualitative study is contextually bound. Two case studies, located in the catchment management forums (CMFs) of the Upper Vaal catchment of Gauteng, South Africa, are used in an exploration of the way in which values and valuing processes might strengthen social learning in water stewardship practices in South Africa. The meta-theory of critical realism is used to help explore this relationship between values, practice and social learning. The study uses document analysis, interviews and observation of selected water stewardship practices to identify held and assigned values, and valuing processes and their influence on social learning, and the framing and de-framing processes that occur in social learning oriented towards water stewardship practices. The study differentiates between held and assigned values and identifies a strong altruistic-held values tendency that characterises forum participants who practice water stewardship in the two case study sites. Most water stewardship practice, identified in the case study sites, manifests as compliance activities in the public – or forum – space, while private-sphere environmentalism is mostly left to the confines of the individual’s private household. Lastly, the CMFs seem to have the potential to provide a space for social learning that is not yet maximised. Drawing from these key findings, the study’s major recommendation is that forums that facilitate learning, either using the current CMF structure or creating new opportunities, need to be provided as a conduit for social learning and reflexivity to make the existing boundaries between private and public forms of water stewardship more porous. This social learning may expand social practice and thus strengthen social change processes that expand water stewardship practices.
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- Date Issued: 2014
Tolerance of selected riverine indigenous macroinvertebrates from the Sabie River (Mpumalanga), and Buffalo River (Eastern Cape) to complex saline kraft and textile effluents
- Authors: Zokufa, T S
- Date: 2001
- Subjects: Water quality management -- South Africa -- Sabie River , Water -- South Africa -- Analysis , Water -- Toxicology -- South Africa , Mayflies -- South Africa , Freshwater invertebrates -- South Africa -- Ecology
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5787 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005475
- Description: Whole Effluent Toxicity (WET) testing has been identified as one of the tools in the management of complex effluents in aquatic ecosystems. In South Africa, toxicity testing has not been required for regulatory purposes. Recently, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry has adopted WET testing as a tool to evaluate the suitability of hazardous effluent for discharge into receiving environments. This has necessitated suitable procedures to be established for use in the South African situation. With the implementation of the new National Water Act (No 36 of 1998), industries have to comply with set standards to protect the aquatic environment. However, the South African Water Quality Guidelines for Aquatic Ecosystems have been set using international toxicity data, and it is not known if they are comparable with South African conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the tolerances of selected indigenous riverine invertebrates to complex saline effluents. The study investigated the effects of kraft mill effluent to Tricorythus tinctus, a tricorythid mayfly from the Sabie River, Mpumalanga, and the effects of a textile effluent to baetid mayflies of the Buffalo River, Eastern Cape. Indigenous riverine invertebrates were chosen as test organisms, as there is no toxicity data in South Africa which could be used to evaluate the level of protection afforded by the South African Water Quality Guidelines for Aquatic Ecosystems. The use of indigenous riverine invertebrates added the challenge of variability of a wild population, and the use of a complex effluent as toxicant added the variability of effluent composition. In this study, WET testing was used to determine the dilution of whole effluents required for discharge. Hazard-based guidelines were developed for the disposal of kraft and textile effluents. The level of environmental hazard posed by different effluent concentrations was ranked, and was related to the River Health Class. This indicated effluent concentrations that may be allowed to enter the aquatic environment, e.g. 3% effluent concentration guideline for both general kraft effluent and general textile effluent for the protection of a Class A river. This approach could contribute to the use of an Environmental Risk Assessment, approach for the management of complex effluents. A number of acute 96 hour toxicity tests were conducted following an unreplicated regression design, using kraft and textile effluents as toxicants, mayfly nymphs as test organisms, and river water as diluent and control. Test organisms were sampled from unimpacted, flowing-water riffle areas, and were exposed in recirculating artificial streams (or channels) to a range of effluent concentrations. Mortality was selected as end-point and observed twice daily. The experimental results showed the variability and acute toxicity of both kraft and textile mill effluents. Baetids were more sensitive (mean LC50=16% effluent concentration) to General Textile Effluent (GTE), but less sensitive to Post Irrigation Textile Effluent (PITE). Textile effluent (PITE) held in a holding dam were therefore less variable and less toxic; suggesting that stabilization of the effluent could have contributed to reduced toxicity. Effluent composition, e.g. higher calcium levels, may also have contributed to lowering toxicity. T. tinctus was sensitive to kraft effluents, but showed less variable responses to Irrigation Kraft Effluent than General Kraft Effluent. Toxicity test data indicated that GKE, IKE and GTE should not enter the aquatic environment without treatment, as they can cause adverse effects to aquatic biota. Both kraft and textile effluents must therefore be treated before discharge. Different responses to different effluent batches were probably due to effluent variability. The use of indigenous organisms, and not a standard laboratory organism, could also have contributed to variability. A hazard-based approach could be useful, as it will provide a consistent basis for deciding on the acceptability of impacts, while allowing natural site-specific differences to be taken into account.
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- Date Issued: 2001
An evaluation of recirculating artificial stream designs for acute toxicity testing using two South African Ephemeroptera species exposed to sodium sulphate
- Authors: Binder, Markus
- Date: 2000
- Subjects: Water -- Pollution -- Toxicology , Toxicology -- Research , Aquatic organisms -- Effect of water pollution on , Sodium sulfate , Mayflies
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5690 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005376 , Water -- Pollution -- Toxicology , Toxicology -- Research , Aquatic organisms -- Effect of water pollution on , Sodium sulfate , Mayflies
- Description: Three artificial stream designs, termed Large Artificial Stream Units (LASUs), Raceways, and Channels, at two major scales (1700 L, 12.5 L and 20 L recirculated volume) were developed at the Institute for Water Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, in order to explore the possibilities of using indigenous rheophilic macroinvertebrates in routine toxicity tests. This study compared these systems, using 96h-EC50 values from sodium sulphate toxicity tests as the experimental response. Two local Ephemeroptera (Leptophlebiidae: Adenophlebia auriculata Eaton, and Baetidae: Afroptilum sudafricanum Lestage) were evaluated for their suitability in routine toxicity tests; and the possible effects of elevated salinity levels in South African rivers on the test species were assessed. Two sets of experiments with each mayfly species were conducted, following an unreplicated regression design. Dechlorinated tap water was used as the water source. Experiments in the Channels were repeated to determine experimental variability. Results were compared statistically by testing for overlap of 95% confidence limits (95%Cls) of EC50 values. The differences between A. auriculata EC50 values in the different systems were statistically significant (no overlap of 95%CLs), but they were not more variable than has been considered normal for biological systems (Coefficient of variation 20.1 %; ratio of greatest EC50 / smallest EC50 1.63). The differences were not related to the scale or the average current velocity characteristic of each stream design (average current velocity LASUs - Raceways - Channels 0.090 - 0.083 - 0.038 m/s). The Channels proved to be most efficient with regard to practical performance as they are portable and easily transportable, user-friendly, reliable, splash-free, cost effective to construct, and can easily be adapted to specific requirements. These systems are therefore recommended for regular use. The suitability of the two mayfly species for routine toxicity testing was evaluated. A. auriculata EC50 values showed a significant negative correlation with the corresponding average body-size (range 1476 - 1610 μm, mean 1555 μm). The different average body-sizes probably reflected the abundance of a certain size range present in the Palmiet River at the time of collection. Both species reacted similarly to Na₂S0₄ (similar slopes of the toxicity curves), identifying this salt as a slow acting toxicant. A. sudafricanum populations were more sensitive to Na₂S0₄ (EC50 3.404 g/L) than A. auriculata (EC50 8.090 g/L), probably because of its smaller body-size (mean 709 μm) and a lack of extremely tolerant individuals. In comparison to other freshwater macro invertebrates, including the standard toxicity test organism Daphnia spp., both mayfly species seemed to be moderately tolerant of Na₂S0₄; therefore there was no particular advantage to using these indigenous taxa rather than Daphnia spp. An assessment of the effects of elevated salinity/TDS levels on the test taxa yielded preliminary insights. A NaCI-EC50 for A. sudafricanum could be extrapolated and suggested a higher sensitivity to Na₂S0₄ than to NaCl. When Na₂S0₄ EC50 values of both species were compared to selected TDS levels of South African rivers, 4. auriculata would mostly not be affected, but A. sudafricanum might occasionally suffer from sub-lethal effects, depending on the sulphate proportion of the TDS. The South African guideline for TDS seemed to protect both species sufficiently.
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- Date Issued: 2000
Macroinvertebrate community and species responses to chlorinated sewage effluent in the Umsunduze and Umbilo rivers, Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa
- Authors: Williams, Margot Lluttrell
- Date: 1997
- Subjects: Sewage -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Sewage -- Purification -- Chlorination -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Baetis -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Mayflies -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Chlorine -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: vital:5727 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1005413 , Sewage -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Sewage -- Purification -- Chlorination -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Baetis -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Mayflies -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Chlorine -- Environmental aspects -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal
- Description: Chlorine has a wide variety of applications in water treatment. Because of its disinfectant efficacy, it is used world wide for the treatment of potable water, sewage, swimming pools and for the control of nuisance organisms in cooling towers. A problem arises when such chlorinated water enters the natural environment, as chlorine's greatest advantage, i.e. its germicidal capacity, becomes its greatest disadvantage. In particular, the discharge of heated, chlorinated water from cooling towers and chlorinated, treated sewage into rivers have severe consequences for the riverine flora and fauna. This study focused on the effects of chlorinated, treated sewage effluent on the community structure of benthic macroinvertebrates in two rivers in KwaZulu-Natal viz. the Umsunduze River in the Pietermaritzburg area, and the Umbilo River in the Durban area. The study was conducted in three phases. The first two phases comprised a toxicological investigation of the effects of chlorine on a selected riverine macroinvertebrate, and the third phase comprised an ecotoxicological investigation of the effects of chlorinated treated sewage on benthic macroinvertebrate community structure. The first phase of the study involved the development of an artificial stream system which would be suitable for determining the response of a selected macroinvertebrate species to chlorine. Chlorine is both reactive and volatile, so this necessitated the development of a specialised flow-through system with apparatus which would allow continuous dosing of a sodium hypochlorite solution. The system was set up at the Process Evaluation Facility at Wiggins Waterworks, Durban, where raw water from lnanda Dam was used. The second phase involved the use of this artificial stream system to conduct acute 96 h toxicity tests. Baetid mayfly nymphs (Baetis harrisoni Barnard) were selected as the test organisms after a preliminary investigation found them to be suitable for survival under laboratory conditions. For comparative purposes, tests were run first on B. harrisoni from a relatively uncontaminated stream in a residential area of Westville, then on specimens from the severely impacted Umbilo River. The LC₅₀ of chlorine for organisms from both sources was found to be in the region of 0.004 mg/l (free chlorine). This value was well below the general effluent standard of 0.1 mg/l in effect at the time. The recommended acute environmental guideline is 0.001 mg/l. The third phase of the study involved field validation of the toxicity test results. It was hypothesised that since the LC₅₀ for free chlorine was 0.004 mg/l, B. harrisoni would not be found downstream from a point source of chlorinated effluent where the concentration of free chlorine ranged from 0.06 to 0.2 mg/l, and that the macroinvertebrate community structure would also be altered. In order to test these hypotheses, benthic macro invertebrate community structure was investigated at several sites up- and downstream from the outlets of the Darvill Wastewater Works in the Umsunduze River and the Umbilo Sewage Purification Works in the Umbilo River. In addition, in order to differentiate between the effects of chlorinated and unchlorinated treated sewage, a section of the Umbilo River (upstream from the chlorinated discharge) was exposed to unchlorinated, treated sewage. In this way, a limited "before and after" sewage and an "upstream and downstream" from sewage investigation could be carried out. Organisms were collected from riffles (and from pools in the Umbilo River) and the samples were then sorted and organisms were identified to species level, where possible, otherwise to genus or family. Changes in community composition were shown graphically as pie charts of relative proportions of organisms found at each site, graphs of the average number of taxa at each site; and graphs of the average number of individuals at each site; Data from the Umbilo River were also analysed using TWINSPAN (Two-way indicator species analysis). In both the Umsunduze and the Umbilo rivers, the deleterious effects of the chlorinated effluent were clearly evident. At Umsunduze Site 3 and Umbilo Site 5 (both immediately downstream from the chlorinated effluent) both the number of taxa and number of individuals were substantially reduced, sometimes to zero. Where organisms were found at the next sites downstream (Sites 4 and 6 respectively), the samples were dominated by Chironomus. In contrast, the unchlorinated effluent in the Umbilo River caused very little difference in community structure. As predicted, B. harrisoni was not found in downstream samples in which chlorine was present, yet appeared to be relatively unaffected by the unchlorinated effluent, suggesting that chlorine, rather than the effluent was responsible for its absence at downstream sites. In conclusion, it would appear that while treated sewage effluent certainly causes changes in macroinvertebrate community structure, chlorination of this effluent leads to large scale destruction of the riverine community. This in turn delays the recovery process of the river, rendering a longer stretch unfit for use. The consequences of this delayed recovery are that the failure to meet the water quality requirements of the natural environment results in those of the other water users (agriculture, industry, domestic and recreation) not being met. This reduces the natural capacity of the riverine community to process organic waste and recover from the discharge of sewage effluent. Chlorination increases the distance of impaired water quality and environmental integrity which result from organically enriched treated sewage effluent. The results of the study indicated that the draft water quality guidelines for aquatic ecosystems, derived from inadequate data, and calculated with a safety factor, were the correct order of magnitude. The approach followed in the study will be useful in the development and refinement of water quality guidelines for aquatic ecosystems.
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- Date Issued: 1997