Avaliação de contribuição do reservatório de Movene na bacia hidrográfica do rio Umbeluzi em Moçambique

Abstract

The management of water resources in the Umbeluzi River basin is an important issue due to the worsening of water scarcity in urban centres and in agriculture, which can jeopardize socio-cultural, ecological and economic values. Even more important is the fact that it is an international basin, whose demand for water has been increasing due to agricultural expansion andpopulation growth. The study evaluated the contribution of the new Movene reservoir and new rules of priority in the allocation of surface water to meet different needs usingWater Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) model. WEAP modelwas validated from 2005 to 2011 with NSE of 0.69 and Bias of 5.2% in the volume of the reservoir and 2005 with an NSE of 6.7 and Bias of 6.0% in the flow. The results demonstrate a lower contribution of the Movene reservoir, the unmet demand in domestic supply went from 33.6hm3to 10.1 hm3in the Reference scenario and from 57.3 hm3to 19.9 hm3in the Reference scenario Higher Growth scenario in 2040. Considering the same year, unmet demand in agriculture fell from 12.9 hm3to 4.1 hm3and from 22 hm3to 10.3 hm3in the Reference and Higher Growth scenarios. In the industrial sector, only the Highest Growth scenario has unmet demand, having gone from 7.4 hm3to 0.3 hm3in 2040. These results emphasize the need to implement demand-side management strategies to minimize the impacts of water scarcity.