Development of a community based integrated catchment management programme in the Mlazi catchment: Executive summary.

This document was originally written by Dr Raymond Auerbach while Programme Coordinator of the above Programme for Farmer Support Group, University of Natal, and revised February 2000. At the request of the Water Research Commission, it has been further extended and updated again by Dr Auerbach in order to give an overview of the achievements of the programme, and of the opportunities and constraints faced in integrated participatory catchment management. This document therefore reflects on the main achievements of the programme to the end of the year 2000, and includes activities and achievements on the ground, capacity building within communities, staff capacity development and impact on policy nationally, provincially and locally. The primary goal of the programme is to develop a framework for community participation in catchment management in South Africa. Why did we start the programme? In 1994, various residents, resource managers and researchers with an interest in the area around the Ntshongweni Dam were approached by Raymond Auerbach concerning social and environmental problems in the area. Although then Research Coordinator for Farmer Support Group, he was at the same time also a local farmer in a small subcatchment of the Sterkspruit, a tributary of the Mlazi River. With the help of seed funding from Umgeni Water, and the positive engagement of many people, information was gathered, a proposal was submitted to the Water Research Commission (WRC) and an initial Catchment Management Workshop was held in November 1994. At this point, the focus was on the Sterkspruit (or Mncadodo Stream), the Nthsongweni area and Dam, and the Mlazi River between Mpumalanga Township and the dam. The programme was called the Ntshongweni Catchment Management Programme (NCMP). When WRC approved the pilot proposal for 1995 and 1996, three more staff members were appointed in addition to the coordinator (ecologist; catchment development facilitator; agriculture facilitator). Activities gathered momentum, with a remarkably positive response to the pamphlet (published in 1996) “Do you care about your catchment?”