Zambia, Kafue Flats
The Kafue Flats in Zambia is an open savannah wetland and covers 6,500 square kilometres along the lower reaches of the Kafue river. It is best known for the Kafue lechwe, a semi-aquatic antelope found nowhere else in the world. The huge wetland also supports unique and diverse bird life, including the largest African population of the endangered Wattled crane.
Local communities gain a living from fishing and grazing in the Kafue Flats, and some big agricultural enterprises (mostly sugar estates) are found to the south of the river. In 1960 WWF bought two farm estates to create the Blue Lagoon and Lochinvar National Parks. These parks are Ramsar sites, wetlands of international importance. The natural filtering and storage of water by wetlands provides clean and plentiful water for a variety of uses. The Kafue Flats seem wild and relatively undisturbed.
A technical dilemma overcome at a growing cost
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However, the hydrology of the Kafue Flats changed since two dams were constructed. The Kafue hydroelectric power plant generates about half of Zambia's electricity. As the Kafue Gorge reservoir is small, a second dam was constructed at Itezhi-tezhi to secure a steady water supply. Water stored there can be released during dry periods to maintain a minimum head of water at the Kafue Gorge dam.
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The result is that peak floods and extreme drought no longer occur, disrupting fish reproductive cycles, affecting birds and local populations depending on these fish. Species have been lost as the wetland habitat degrades.
Choking
Water hyacinth forms another major environmental threat in the area west of the Kafue Gorge dam. In many places these plants now form dense mats more than a metre thick. It is threatening the bridges and the dams' turbines, fed by nutrients leaching from the sugar estates and other industries around the Flats. It is exacerbated by the altered river regime, with no occasional extreme dry periods to kill the plants.
Disrupted natural cycles
The water hyacinth plague, loss of wildlife and competing demands for water are manifestations of the underlying disruption to natural cycles in the wetland. Land use conflicts, fish stock depletion and poaching are consequences of lack of coordination in the use of the wetland resources, by not providing sustainable livelihoods for the local population and migrant workers.
Completing the cycle
In a developing Southern Africa, hydroelectricity will be Zambia's natural powerhouse and its future must be guaranteed, also in the Kafue Flats. A natural Kafue Flats and a return to more natural water and nutrient cycles will underpin this future, while at the same time raising water quality and safeguarding the fisheries - and help to control the water hyacinth. It will also give a new impetus to the tourist industry and provide opportunities to farming. Agriculture and industry along the Kafue river depend on a secure supply of clean water and can in turn contribute to solving the water hyacinth problem through the effective treatment of waste water. Partners for Wetlands is working to achieve this vision through building lasting partnerships between enterprises, governments and communities, providing a model for wetland management throughout Africa.
