WIOSAP
Water is essential to all kinds of human development and livelihood support systems, including ecosystems management, and sustains both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. However, water resources are now under pressure due to increased competing demands and global warming, which have led to complex water management challenges.
Kenya's coastal and marine resources provide numerous benefits to coastal communities, including food, employment, protection from climate change, and more. However, inclusive planning. development, and management of resources is imperative to ensure that these benefits can be enjoyed by future generations of Kenyans.
Marine litter—and its effects on marine life, beaches, and fisheries —has become a pressing issue for South Africa. The proponents underscore that the country has grown increasingly concerned about beach litter originating from river systems. The project will demonstrate how a 'Source to Sea' approach in five river systems in KwaZulu-Natal, can reduce litter generation and recover litter with river basin-wide interventions.
The Bombetoka Estuary is highly vulnerable to pollution from Mahajanga city’s tourism, agricultural, industrial, and other sectors. Tests of the water by the National Centre For Environmental Research (CNRE) indicate the presence of toxic heavy metals and hydrocarbons that pose serious risks to both human and marine life. The project will demonstrate how water quality and sediments can be improved by developing a regulatory framework and monitoring system—a framework which will provide the basis for the development of national wastewater standards.
Mangroves are important ecosystems for communities in coastal Mozambique through the various goods and services they provide including food, fuelwood, coastal protection, and temperature regulation, among others. These important ecosystems are however threatened by anthropogenic activities such as over-harvesting, coastal development and conversion of mangrove areas for urban development.
Project Summary:
Over the past 15 years, economic growth in several areas in Mozambique has been increasingly relying on the extractive sector with minimal translation of such growth to an equivalent increase in living standards. Most of the rural population thus remains highly dependent on natural resources and their associated ecosystem services for which rainfall and river flows are key drivers.