Existing Solutions

Irrigation schemes, water saving, water accounts,water user association, South Africa

technical

TECHNICAL/INSTITUTIONAL SOLUTION

In South Africa, the water administration system (WAS) was introduced as a water management tool for irrigation schemes, water user associations (WUAs) and water management officers to manage their water uses, water distribution and water accounts. The main purpose behind the development of WAS program was to minimize for irrigation schemes that work on the human system and distribute water through canal networks.  the  WAS is used for the efficient administration to -address information,  scheduled or rateable areas and  water quota allocations. Irrigation water  is delivered through pressure-regulated sluice gates, measuring structures and water meters. the other features include – Water transfers between users (Automatic and manually).
• Water use calculations for planted areas based on crop water use data;  Date and time related flow data collected from electronic loggers or mechanical chart recorders;  Discharge tables (DT) to do conversions between water depth and flow rate for measuring structures or vice versa. ; List of rateable areas (LRA) information,  Calculation of water releases for water distribution through canal networks, pipelines and rivers taking lag times, evaporation, transpiration and seepage into account.;  Billing system that links to the water usage information;  Flexible user charges based on water usage, a flat rate or scheduled area ; Images and photos that can be linked to different types of information in the database;  Automatic weather station database with a build in calculation of Eto values ;  Mail merge facility for sending letters to clients,; The WAS program saves all information in a Firebird database that can be installed on a single PC oron a server for use over a network. WAS makes use of seven modules: the administration, water order, measured data, water release, crop water use, accounts and report modules. It  also promotes efficient water use at farm level.

Currently the WAS program is in use at all the major irrigation schemes cross South Africa.The innovation was targeted to Government irrigation schemes, Water User Associations (WUAs)  and Irrigation Boards. Initially, the WAS was deployed over 142,843 ha  including 9500 farms; and during 2006-07 it was extended to 2 new schemes. The innovation has led to 20% water saving which gave an average water saving between 23 to 46 million cubic meters per year. The WAS has been  successfully adopted in South Africa’s largest irrigation scheme – Vaalharts Water, other irrigation schemes like Loskop and Oranje-Riet.

WAS is a uniquely South African water administration system aimed at increasing the productivity of water use in irrigated agriculture. Developed by Dr Nico Benadé a Civil Engineer  with funding mainly from the WRC, WAS essentially provides irrigation schemes with decision support for effective and efficient water management. This innovative technological and managerial solution was developed by Dr. Nico Benade, The innovation has been adopted by major irrigation schemes/ water user associations in South Africa. Dr Benadé received the WatSave Innovative Water Management Award  (2006) from the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage for development  of WAS and its continued implementation in South Africa. 

The implementation of the WAS program makes the water savings in irrigation schemes sustainable with the potential to improve even more in the future. As the proficiency and knowledge of the personnel increase with WAS, the accuracy of supplying the correct amount of water to the right place at the right time will be improved and more savings are expected. The WAS has already been adopted in many irrigation schemes like Vaalhart water in South Africa there are plans to introduce it to the nearby Taung scheme

 The target 2.3 aims at finding solutions to lower the cost of water management so that food is produced at affordable prices. Innovations like WAS help to expand irrigated area with the same amount of water, while at the same time reduce the overall cost of  operation and management of large-scale public operated surface irrigation schemes. This is achieved by-
  Minimising of water distribution losses. in irrigation schemes, 
• Better management of water quota allocations and water usage per farmer.
• make available an extensive list of water reports on farm and scheme level.
• Increased productivity of scheme management personnel.
• Integrated debit accounting system that improves debit management.
• Improvement of the overall water administration management on irrigation schemes

The computerised system in the form of the Water Administration System (WAS) has improved the operations of irrigation schemes in a tangible manner.In the case of the Vaalharts irrigation  scheme, for example, 11 580,4 m3 per hectare instead of 12 064,8 m3 per hectare now has to be released at the weir,  to deliver the allocation of 9 140 m3 per hectare at the farm edge. This is a saving of 14,135 million m3 a year for the whole irrigation scheme.  Besides the above other added advantages include:-
• Water orders  of farmers are captured directly into the computer by water control officers,
• Calculation errors are eliminated because the computer does all the calculations, and
• Water balances are updated on a daily basis.

• Water distribution sheets can now quickly be recalculated in cases of water order changes.
• Water use efficiency reports are now generated automatically with the WAS.
• All water control officers are computer literate due to the user friendliness of the WAS.
• Minimum paperwork is needed and all the water reports are generated electronically.
• Water shortages on canals due to human error are limited.
• Canal leakages and breakages can easily be monitored due to fixed water losses.
• Water control officers have more time for inspections, minor repairs and time for clients.
• The water control office gets more complements for good service delivery which makes them positive and proud to work for Vaalharts Water.
• Productivity has vastly improved. The attitude of water control officers has become more positive as their administrative has been reduced and  can spend more time for other works of the scheme.
• Water loss on the scheme was decreased by 5% from 32% to 26.7% in a single

The WAS is currently spreading through a project funded by the Department of Water Affairs.  The project includes workshops on WAS and further training. A disposal report is currently developed and added to the WAS program. The objective is to use the WAS to compile disposal reports at scheme level and roll it up to national level.  This development will most probably lead to a number of new WAS installations. A new water release method was added for a specific scheme that lead to a noticeable decrease in their water losses and improvement to the water distribution management.  A number of client PC’s were also installed to minimize the time to capture water orders.

If the WAS could be expanded from the current 143 000 ha to the estimated 500 000 ha of irrigation schemes in South Africa, with the support of water managers in water user associations and public servants in the regional and head offices, there will b significant saving of irrigation water, and improvement in performance of irrigation schemes.

The WAS can be applied in other developing countries by tailoring it to suit the technical, socio-economic, and institutional  situation of a given country. Physical system of irrigation schemes should be in good conditions and capable of operating on “demand” mode. Water user associations need to be functional and effective. Also the Govt. should be willing to invest in modernization of irrigation infrastructure like flow measuring devices, etc. Training/ capacity development  of irrigation staff and farmers/ WUAs is also necessary for the succesful implementation of WAS.

The implementation of the WAS program makes the water savings in irrigation schemes sustainable with the potential to improve even more in the future. As the proficiency and knowledge of the personnel increase with WAS, the accuracy of supplying the correct amount of water to the right place at the right time will be improved and more savings are expected. The WAS has already been adopted in many irrigation schemes like Vaalhart water in South Africa there are plans to introduce it to the nearby Taung scheme

Dr. Nico Benadé,  NB Systems cc, P.O. Box 15102, Sinoville, Pretoria, 0129, South Africa, Tel: +27 12-5481008, Fax: +27 866 845044, E-mail: nicob@mweb.co.za,

Mr. Kobus Harbron, Head Water Control Officer, Vaalharts Water User Association, PO Box 4, Jan Kempdorp, 8550, South Africa, Tel: +27 53 4560131, Fax: +27 8655 9296160, E-mail: kobus@vhwater.co.za

International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID), 48 Nyaya Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi 110 021, India ; Tel: +91 11 26115679/ 26116837, Fax: +91 11 2611 5962
E-mail: icid@icid.org, Website: http://www.icid.org

Water Research Commission, Marumati Building, c/o Frederika Street and 18th Avenue, Rietfontein, Pretoria, Private Bag X03, GEZINA, 0031, South Africa
Telephone: +27-12-330-0340, Fax: +27-12-331-2565 , E-Mail: info@wrc.org.za,  
 

http://www.icid.org/awards.htm
Water Research Commission, South Africa, <http://www.wrc.org.za>
A PPT (pdf) on ‘Water saving in South Africa’ by Nico Benade is attached
Water savings: Persistence pays off at Vaalharts, The water Wheel magazine, Nov/Dec. 2009, Vol.8, No.6, http://www.wrc.org.za/Pages/KH_WaterWheel.aspx?  (pdf attached)