Purpose

Lesotho is considered the water tower of Southern Africa. Lesotho’s catchments capture billions of litres of rain water each year and feed this water into the rivers that nourish the Mountain Kingdom as well as Botswana, Namibia and South Africa.

Lesotho’s river catchments are vital for livelihoods, the economy and environment in Lesotho and the Southern African region. However, they are under threat from severe land degradation.

ReNOKA – ‘We are a river’.

ReNOKA is a National programme by the Government of Lesotho as well as an active citizen movement that aims to engage, unify and inspire all communities living and working within the Orange-Senqu River Basin to act together to protect and restore land and water for the shared prosperity of the basin and its people.

ReNOKA embraces a new way of thinking that sees land, water, people, animals and infrastructure as one interconnected system that must be managed collectively.

Read more about ReNOKA’s strategic approach to land and water management.

When livelihoods, land and water resources in a river basin are managed for the sustainability of future generations using multiple approaches, we call this Integrated Catchment Management.

As the Orange-Senqu River has its source in the Mountain Kingdom of Lesotho, ReNOKA takes its name from the local Sesotho language and means ‘we are a river’.

ReNOKA’s vision is to support integrated, sustainable and risk-informed catchment management that leads to the conservation of biodiversity, land, and water resources while advancing climate resilience.

Using this approach will help to improve urban and rural livelihoods, water quality and economic development in Lesotho, the Orange-Senqu basin and the entire Southern African region.

To reap the benefits of integrated catchment management in Lesotho, for today’s and future generations efforts must be coordinated. Cooperation should empower and support partnerships between all stakeholders.

Read more about ReNOKA’s approach in our Learning Laboratory.

ReNOKA objectives:

To ensure that domestic, rural, industrial and agricultural users have access to quality water
To establish sustainable management of water and land resources
To prevent land degradation and soil erosion and to restore Lesotho’s land and water resources
To build resilience to climate change

ReNOKA key principles are:

Cooperation and coordinated action to promote coherence and synergies in the implementation of policies and sustainable land-use practices
A partnership approach among government bodies, private sector, civil society, communities and international partners
Civic participation
Promote an equal and balanced use of resources
Promotion of transparent and empowering governance.

How is ReNOKA doing things differently to ensure lasting impact?

Read more about what innovation means to us and about our community-driven, multi-stakeholder and science-based approach.

Why is the ReNOKA movement important?

The Orange-Senqu River is such an important natural resource for Southern Africa that it directly impacts 15 million people who rely on it for water, farming and hydro power.

While Lesotho’s economy is becoming more industrialised, subsistence and livestock farming still remain an integral part of the household income and culture of Basotho. Since two-thirds of the country’s landscape is mountains, many Basotho farm on the mountainsides, which presents additional challenges, including erosion. As Lesotho’s population grows, there is added pressure on the limited land to produce more food from increasingly poor soil and to support livestock grazing.

These challenges are exacerbated by the effects of climate change: In the Kingdom of Lesotho, climate change threatens livelihoods as extreme weather events such as heavy rainfall and storms, floods but also longer dry spells and droughts have become more frequent with each passing decade. These weather events also accelerate soil erosion, landslides and gully formation.

Mountains may not be ideal for farming, but the unique landscape does offer some unique benefits, like providing an ideal collecting basin for rain and snow. In fact, Lesotho is capable of harvesting so much water, that four countries benefit from the many rivers and tributaries that originate in the Lesotho Highlands.

Water is an important export for Lesotho, as it helps support the energy and industrial economy, as well as the agricultural sector, of neighbouring South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. As Lesotho’s grasslands and wetlands become increasingly degraded, the very source of the Orange-Senqu River is under threat.

Change that ReNOKA aims to achieve

Catchment management and rehabilitation

Restoration of degraded watersheds through emergency rehabilitation measures and the implementation of catchment management plans. These plans address the human causes of degradation such as unsustainable land use patterns, advance climate resilience and provide livelihood opportunities for local communities.

Policy and institutional governance

Relevant policies and legislation are updated and harmonised to ensure effective management of catchment areas. Guidelines for catchment planning and for the implementation of soil and water management, as well as clearly defined institutional mandates, ensure a coherent and integrated approach across institutions.

Financing arrangements

Suitable financing mechanisms ensure that funding is available for the implementation of catchment development and rehabilitation measures at the right levels of Government. Investments from international public and private institutions complement national funding arrangements.

Skills and knowledge for practitioners

Resource users and professionals have the skills they need to contribute to sustainable management of land, water and environmental resources. This ranges from practical training on innovative agricultural methods at a community level to dedicated graduate courses at the National University of Lesotho.

Social and behaviour change communication

Reducing catchment degradation depends on citizen awareness adoption of more sustainable behaviours among land and water users. This is promoted through targeted communication approaches and interventions informed by behavioural insights.

Data and research

Data and evidence inform decision making, learning and innovation for integrated catchment management. The aim is that better data leads to the creation of evidence on effective approaches and methodologies, optimising the allocation of resources to those catchment areas and local communities that are successful in implementing integrated catchment management.

Climate resilience

The impacts of climate change in Lesotho manifest in increased rainfall variability and extreme climate events such as droughts, floods and heatwaves. ReNOKA focuses on a risk-informed approach to catchment management that promotes resilience by systematically considering climate risks in the catchment management process and fostering nature-based solutions for adaptation to climate change.

Transboundary cooperation

Lesotho is a major contributor to the Orange-Senqu basin, which also includes South Africa, Botswana and Namibia. Catchment restoration in Lesotho benefits all riparian states, which provides the rationale for transboundary cooperation on integrated catchment management under the auspices of the Orange-Senqu River Commission.