Projects

Year: 2022 – 2024 | Client: GWPSA | Location: Zimbabwe, Mozambique

The objective of the assignment was to support the Mozambique and Zimbabwe governments to facilitate the consultation process of determining ‘objective’ EFlows at strategic points in the transboundary Pungwe Basin that will, among other considerations, inform specifications on EFlows in the Pungwe Basin Agreement. The EFlows Assessment for the Pungwe Basin used the DRIFT method for 10 locations in the Basin including river and estuarine sites.

Year: 2021 – 2024 | Client: South African Water Research Commission | Location: Southern Africa

The Africa's Living Rivers Programme: Knowledge Capture Project, developed libraries of generic DRIFT (Downstream Response to Imposed Flow Transformations) response curves that link physical-chemical-biological drivers and ecological-social responses for rivers and estuaries in the SADC (Southern African Development Community). These will allow a coarse-level DRIFT eco-social model to be set up for most major SADC river basins and provide a first level of predictions of the ecological and social implications (risks) of proposed management actions related to changes in the flow of water and sediment without the time or expense of a multidisciplinary team working over many months.

Year: 2021 – 2022 | Client: Government of Malawi/IFC | Location: Malawi

Southern Waters was commissioned by the GoM to evaluate the impacts on the Shire River associated with the updated design of Mpatamanga HPP, specifically the attenuation of peaking power releases by the RRD. The ToR for the assignment included: a. Update the technical due diligence model with the current RRD location  (RRD version 6), providing quantitative analysis for this assignment; b. Review the Multiconsult EFlows assessment in relation to the updated design of the Mpatamanga HPP (i.e., including the RRD) and identify risks, impacts, benefits and additional mitigation measures  as necessary; c. Assess the current trajectory of the overall ecosystem condition using available (desktop) information; d. Provide a conceptual evaluation of possible mitigation/offset options, with Mpatamanga HPP operating with the proposed RRD; and e. Prepare a Rapid Cumulative Impact Assessment (RCIA) according to the IFC Good Practice Handbook on Cumulative Impact Assessment (CIA), based on information available in the Multiconsult EFlows Assessment.

Year: 2021 – 2022 | Client: Asian Development Bank | Location: Asia

The Terms of Reference for this assignment were to review the Environmental and Social (E&S) safeguard policies of selected Multilateral Financial Institutions (MFIs, such as EBRD, IFC and WB) for reference and recommendations related to EFlows in the E&S policy documents, comparing these with the Safeguard Policy Statement (SPS) and recommend how/where to integrate EFlows in the new revised SPS of the ADB. The deliverables are linked to two main phases:

1. Review the safeguard policies of selected MFIs (such as EBRD, IFC and WB) for EFlows Issues/standards, comparing these with the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) SPS
2. Evaluate integration of EFlows into the new revised safeguards policy statement of the ADB.

Year: 2021 – 2022 | Client: Multiconsult/LLWDP | Location: Lesotho

A ‘high resolution’ EFlows Assessment for the Hlotse River, Lesotho was done to support implementation of the Lesotho Lowland Bulk Water Supply Scheme in Zones 2 and 3 (Hlotse and Maputsoe). The results will be used to better define the magnitude and extent of potential impacts (geomorphological, ecological and social) of the proposed operation (and mitigation of these) with an emphasis on key ecosystem drivers, fish, macroinvertebrates and downstream users.

Year: 2019 – 2021 | Client: GIZ | Location: Zambia

A ‘high resolution’ EFlows Assessment of the Kafue River downstream of Ithezi-Thezi, including the Kafue Flats, which consolidates available information and uses it to predict ecosystem responses and the linked social implications to a changes in a range of aspects linked to water-resource development and climate change, such as the flow regime, hydropeaking; sediment dynamics and consideration of the confounding influence of non-flow related issues, such as invasive plants and crayfish, encroachment of human settlements, and; erosion.

Year: 2021 – 2022 | Client: ADB | Location: Nepal

The DRIFT EFlows assessment in this project provides advice on how aspects of the Dudhkoshi and Sunkoshi ecosystems can be expected to change under different water and sediment flow regimes (scenarios), and barrier conditions with the idea that this information should then be used to decide what a river is used for and what level of protection it will be afforded. As per the ToR, the source DB for this assessment was the DRIFT database set up for the Poonch River in Pakistan.

Year: 2018 | Client: International Finance Corporation | Location: Nepal

Phase 1B: Mentoring a team of IFC-selected Nepalese professionals through the data collection and set-up of a basin-wide DRIFT EFlows DSS for the Trishuli Basin in Nepal to assess options with respect biodiversity protection and sustainability to the development of hydropower plants in the basin.

Year: 2017 – 2018 | Client: Mekong River Commission | Location: Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam

Scenarios (pathways) of progressive HP development in the Lower Mekong River were analysed using the DRIFT Database set up for the MRC Council (see below). The pathways considered under the SHDS2018 have a more nuanced approach. The “Design Mitigation”, “Prioritised” and “Preservation” (different forms of mitigation) pathways involve re-design, re-location or deferment to beyond 2040 of certain projects, either in response to regional power demand or to the need to balance trade-offs. An important aspect of the SHDS analysis was to ‘quantify’ the environmental impacts of the alternative pathways in a manner that was consistent with the Council Study analyses. The only way to do this was to the DRIFT (BioRA) model that was established and used for assessing environmental impacts in the Council Study. Using DRIFT allowed the team to directly compare the alternative SHDS pathways with the 2020 (M2) and 2040 (M3) Council Study scenarios.

Year: 2017 – 2019 | Client: Ministry of Water and Irrigation of Kenya /Aurecon | Location: Kenya

The project is phase 1 of the Kenyan Water Security and Climate Resilience Project (KWSCRP),which has three inter-related components supporting the project development objective,the first is water-resources development,the second is effective water sector institutions and the third is support of project implementation.The Environmental Flow Specialist provides support for all three of these through a combination of technical and capacity building tasks.