AWARD (Association for Water & Rural Development) is supporting the uMhlathuze Water Stewardship Partnership’s (UWASP) efforts regarding water security in the uMhlathuze Catchment: through a project entitled “Supporting collaborative catchment management in the uMhlathuze River Catchment through the development and participatory use of a real-time mobile monitoring application”. This also includes work on a desktop-based app as an integrated Decisions-Support System, and the installation of additional flow monitoring equipment. The work is supported through UWASP management and funding partners including NBI, GIZ, WWF, and Mondi.
Part of the work involves the development of a real-time flow monitoring tool known as FlowTracker which is already being used in the Inkomati-Usuthu and Olifants River basins. It is being used to monitor flows and to ensure that they are compliant with standards and benchmarks and as part of an early warning systems for disaster preparedness. The FlowTracker uMhlatuze will be freely available to all stakeholders. The first version is now nearly ready for release. Importantly, FlowTracker needs to be used by stakeholders and embedded in the context of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), which, under the NWA must include stakeholders. IWRM depends on the collaboration of multiple sectors as represented in UWASP. The project has been designed specifically to involve stakeholders in the :
- Design of FlowTracker and INWARDs-Lite (a decision support system)
- To respond to stakeholder needs.