Monitoring water resources, water use, water pollution and

compliance

IWRM for River Basin Organisations

Learn the methods and management of monitoring

• Water resources and water use

• Pollution and water quality

Learning objectives

Monitoring

• For planning!

• For enforcement!

Why do we monitor?

Monitoring

Monitoring

Basin characterisation

Land cover and use

Water demand and use

Surface Water resources

Gender and Poverty

Economical activities

Groundwater resources

Health and sanitation

Biodiversity and environmental status

Demography and educational level

Infrastructural development

Rainfall and evaporation

Water quality and pollution sources

Monitoring for enforcement

Monitoring

Compliancy checks:

• Direct monitoring

• Indirect monitoring

• Indicative monitoring

COMBINATION IS PREFERRED!

Our Water Management objectives.

Monitoring

• Develop a reliable knowledge base of water resources availability as a basis for management;

• Ensure the water allocation system is effective and permits are being complied with;

• Ensure the pollution control system is effective and permits are being complied with.

Who is responsible?

Monitoring

The REGULATORY BODY has the overall responsibility for the monitoring.

It does not mean that they conduct all the monitoring!

Key for succeeding with monitoring of water resources and water quality:

Monitoring

PRIORITISATION OF MONITORING STATIONS

It is better with a few gauging stations that give reliable results than many stations that give uncertain results.

Monitoring

Primary gauging stations – to give the reliable long-term measures. The requirements of accuracy and consistency of these stations are very high.

Secondary gauging stations – to support the primary stations but are more focused on compliance. Targeted to identify relative changes.

Tertiary gauging stations – are temporarily set up for specific studies

Monitoring surface water resources

Monitoring

Primary stations:

1. An even coverage over the river basin

2. Some should target natural flow conditions;

3. Enable accurate and consistent measurements

4. Easily accessible

5. Not more than 10

Monitoring surface water resources

Monitoring

Primary stations:

• Well maintained!

• Well paid and educated observers!

• Logging equipment!

Monitoring surface water resources

Monitoring

Secondary stations:

1. Cover upstream abstractions

2. Target major users

3. May be operated during only parts of the year

4. As many as resources allows

Monitoring groundwater resources

Monitoring

• Concentrated investigations to assess availability

• Monitoring of groundwater levels to assess changes (primary + secondary)

Funding

Monitoring

• Primary - Government

• Secondary – indirect by stakeholders

• Tertiary – direct by stakeholders

In practice: one pot of money

Monitoring of abstracted water

Monitoring

• Based on the pump capacity and time of operation

• Area of irrigated land

• Based on fees generated from sold water (utilities)

+ NORMALLY NO LARGE EXTRA COSTS

- CONTROL MEASUREMENTS NEEDED!

Funding

Monitoring

• Allocation Fees

• Self-monitoring - direct by stakeholders

• Control – indirectly by stakeholders

Monitoring of water quality

Monitoring

• In the river:

• Primary – at primary runoff stations load

• Secondary – only concentration relative changes

• Point sources:

• Self-monitoring (and reporting)

• Spot checks

PRIORITISATION OF PARAMETERS

Monitoring of water quality

Monitoring

• Sampling + laboratory analysis needs quality control.

• In-situ measurements of indicative parameters (Cond. pH, DO)

Two issues to think about

1. Frequency

2. Comparability

Funding

Monitoring

• In the river:

• Primary - Government

• Secondary – indirect by stakeholders

• Point sources:

• Self-monitoring - direct by stakeholders

• Control – indirectly by stakeholdersPROBLEM: laboratory analysis expensive!

No monitoring is meaningful if the results are not managed, used and disseminated back to the stakeholders

Don’t forget!

Monitoring

How are you doing?

Monitoring

Is there compliance with water allocation permits?

Is there compliance with pollution permits? Is the groundwater and surface water

monitoring network producing reliable and usable data?

Are groundwater levels declining?

• Monitoring is made for both planning and compliance purposes.

• Prioritisation must be made to ensure reliable data

• Compliance should be monitored both through self-monitoring and through indirect measurements in the downstream rivers.

• Emphasis should be given to good sampling and laboratory practices.

Conclusions

Monitoring