News

Alarmingly low levels of some of the perennial rivers that affect the Kruger National Park (KNP) have forced KNP management to introduce stringent water restrictions in an effort to help preserve the biodiversity needs of the park’s river systems.

“We realise that the restrictions will have a noticeable effect on tourist facilities as the lawns will not be as lush and green that they have been for the last few years, but we need to start conserving the little water that we have,” said KNP Conservation Services head of department, Dr Freek Venter.

The new water restrictions, which will come into place from April 23, 2007, will effectively halve the amount of water used for irrigation purposes at KNP camps, hostels, ranger posts, staff villages, concession lodges, sports fields and entrance gates, no matter whether those facilities extract water from boreholes or rivers.

“Our biggest worry is the long term effect on the ecosystems found in our rivers which are, in effect, part of biodiversity. Extraction of available water outside the KNP’s boundaries has had a domino effect on KNP perennial rivers, which include the Crocodile, Letaba and Olifants,” added Dr Venter.

Future water restrictions could also affect other operations with relatively high water usage, with car wash facilities and further irrigation restrictions highest on the agenda.

Rivers such as the Crocodile, Letaba and Olifants play a huge role in biodiversity conservation as they play host to a variety of small fish and insects that make use of flowing rivers and overhanging vegetation for protection and food collection. When river levels drop too much, these animals are forced into pools in which they have to compete with other animals for habitat space and, often, their survival as a species as predators make use of this opportunity to hunt them easily.

Pools that are used by hippos and crocodiles will become stressed as these will be the only source of water in the area. Hippos also defecate in the water, which removes oxygen and the result is a fish kill. KNP management thus believes that the warning lights in this regard are definitely on.

“It is now the end of summer and these rivers are supposed to be flowing well, but in actual fact these rivers are flowing at the rates at which they normally flow in September or October. Water usage outside the boundaries of Kruger has a significant effect on what happens when the rivers eventually reach Kruger.

“We trust that water users upstream of the KNP take factors such as reduced rainfall and drought into effect when they decide on how much water to extract,” Dr Venter said.

An example of how good co-operation with all water users in a river system can be found downstream of the Nyaka Dam, where a certain amount of the water available in this system is allocated to the Sabie and Sand rivers, which eventually finds its way into the Kruger National Park.

“The Nyaka Dam is a classic win-win situation and we would hope that similar agreements can be made with other water users in the various catchment areas of the other rivers that flow into the KNP,” concluded Dr Venter.

Issued by:
Raymond Travers, Media Relations Practitioner, Kruger National Park. Contact: Tel: 013 735 4116, cell: 082 908 2677 or email: [email protected]

Enquiries:
William Mabasa, HOD: Public Relations and Communications, Kruger National Park. Contact: Tel: 013 735 4363, cell: 082 807 3919 or email: [email protected]