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For the past eleven years, the Great Ruaha River which flows through the Ruaha National
Park, has ceased flowing during the dry season, with extended periods of zero flow. The
drying up has resulted in social conflicts between upstream and downstream users. It has also
caused adverse impacts on the ecosystem of the Ruaha National Park, disrupting the lives of
many animals and causing changes in their behavior. In this paper we present the findings of
a hydrological study conducted to estimate environmental flow requirements. The desktop
reserve model was used to determine maintenance high and low flows, and drought low flow
requirements within the Ruaha National Park. The results indicate that to maintain the basic
ecological functioning of the river requires an average annual allocation of 635.3 Mm3
(equivalent to 21.6% of mean annual runoff). This is the average annual maintenance flow;
comprising of maintenance low flows (i.e. 15.9 % MAR; 465.4 Mm3) and maintenance high
flows (i.e. 5.8% of MAR; 169.9 Mm3). The absolute minimum water requirement was
estimated to be 0.6 m3s-1 with the probability of exceedance of 0.99. The study confirms that
in the absence of ecological information hydrological indices can be used to provide a first
estimate of environmental water requirements. However, before being applied, greater
understanding of the relationships between flow and the ecological condition of the riverine
ecosystem is required. |
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