World Heritage Committee Dilutes Reaction to Batoka Gorge HydroElectric Scheme

Keep Victoria Falls Wild, 27th September 2023

- South Africa successfully propose amendments diluting Committee decision

- Committee diverted from recommendations of Reactive Monitoring Mission

The World Heritage Committee at its 45th Conference Session, held at Riyadh in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over 10th-25th September 2023, turned its attention to issues affecting the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site (VFWHS) in a discussion held on 13th September (available to view on the UNESCO World Heritage website here (1:52:10 to 2:33:25)). 

Members of the Committee discussed the draft decision text prepared by the World Heritage Centre and IUCN (UNESCO, July 2023) and amendments to the text which were proposed by the South African delegation (UNESCO, August 2023). Both South Africa and Zambia are currently members of the Committee.

The Committee’s concerns mainly focussed on the proposed Batoka Gorge Hydro-Electric Scheme (BGHES), jointly proposed by the State Parties of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and potential impacts of the project on the Outstanding Universal Values (OUV) of the VFWHS, which includes a section of the gorges extending some 12 km downstream as well as the Falls themselves and a section the river extending some 15 km upstream.

Map showing flooding of the Batoka Gorge from the proposed 
Hydro-Electric Scheme (click for larger view)

Before the Committee debated the proposed amendments, the World Heritage Centre Secretariat presented an opening statement highlighting direct threats to the Site from the Batoka Gorge Hydro Electric Scheme (BGHES).

“On the issue of the Batoka Gorge Hydro Electric Scheme which is referred in paragraph 4 - we would like to note that following review of the documentations from the State Parties, the WHC and IUCN have assessed that the reservoir area of the electric scheme will extend approximately 10.75 km into the property at full supply level which at deepest point will increase the water level in the property by around 43 m. During the dry season it is reported that the reservoir level  will be lowered, which will reduced the flooded area by 5 km. This means that during the dry season still 5.75 km of the gorge inside the property will remain with the higher water level.

“The project will therefore alter the unique gorge ecosystem and water flow and could potentially impact on the ecological values of the property as defined in its statement of OUV.

“The World Heritage Centre therefore considers that the property should not proceed as currently proposed but should be further revised together with the Environmental Impact Assessment to assess alternative project designs that would avoid these impacts on the property and include a comprehensive ecological assessment of the gorge ecosystem.”

In their statement on their proposed amendments the representative for South Africa informed the Committee:

“The State Party of Zambia has taken utmost care to avoid any possible impacts on the OUV through the selection of an alternative that has no likelihood of undermining the integrity of the site. The chosen alternative clearly shows the tail of the backflow of the reservoir waters will only be located in gorges, with a potential water level rise of only 25% maximum, and as such no flooding of the gorges. And therefore no negative impact on the attributes of the OUV.”

The statement appears to contradict itself by saying the backflow will include the gorges (within the WHS) but that there will be “no flooding of the gorges,” and the claimed “potential water level rise of only 25% maximum” appears to make limited sense without further context. 

The representative from Zimbabwe also encouraged the Committee to support the project.

"The establishment of the BGHES will contribute to the partial fulfilment of the national obligations under the Paris agreement following the UN... COP decision to encourage third parties to promote clean energy production whilst reducing and eventually eliminating fossil fuels that are exacerbating climate change and have negative and significant implications on the hydrology of the Zambezi river.

"At present the average of 50 percent of our populations both in Zambia and Zimbabwe lack access to electricity, and ...the investment in clean energy is necessary, and in joint efforts...  our governments remain committed to religiously implement recommendations of the E S I A prepared for this project.

"Given these submissions, Chair, together with Zambia we pledge to continue preserving the integrity of the property whilst ensuring that livelihoods surrounding communities are enhanced through sustainably designed programmes and ensuring that the ecosystems inhabited are preserved to protect the OUV of the property."

The Committee then discussed and considered the various amendments, with the Japanese delegates, in particular, raising concerns over the shift of emphasis away from the request for a comprehensive ecological assessment of the project’s impact on gorge ecosystem environment, instead placing the emphasis on a geomorphological and/or geological assessment.

Google satellite image of the Batoka Gorge (click for larger view)

A detailed ecological study of the gorge ecosystems is essential if the impacts of this development are to be understood. For example the fish communities of the middle Zambezi River system reflect not only the fast-flowing rapids of the gorge system but also a complex regional geomorphological history of major river course changes and river captures, with the Victoria Falls acting as a geographical barrier to the movement of fish and resulting in geographically isolated fish communities downstream of the Falls. Geomorphological evidence has resulted in several theories on the time-scales in the evolution of the Falls and gorge system and the study of comparative fish faunas and species clines has helped refine these theories (Kramer and Van der Bank, 2011). There is still potentially much more that can be learned from the study of the unique fish communities of the Batoka Gorge before they are lost under the waters of the BGHES.

It should be noted that the gorge systems of the middle Zambezi downstream are already significantly affected by the Kariba Dam, and that the BGHES will not only affect the natural river-flow above the dam, but also downstream, effectively modifying the remaining natural sections of the gorge environments. An alternative location, in the Devil’s Gorge, downstream from the Batoka Gorge and above Kariba, would at least leave the Batoka Gorge as a last natural example of the once extensive gorge ecosystems.

Despite the issues raised in the joint World Heritage Centre/IUCN Reactive Monitoring mission report, opening statements from the World Heritage Centre and IUCN and concerns raised by the Japanese delegation, the Committee adopted the amendments suggested by South Africa. The amendments removed a specific request “to assess alternative project designs that will not impact the OUV.”

The amendments effectively remove all the recommendations resulting from the Reactive Monitoring Mission to the Site, undertaken in February 2022 (UNESCO, June 2023), undermining efforts of their own advisory bodies to improve the protection of the Site.

References

Kramera and Van der Bank (2011) The Victoria Falls, a species boundary for the Zambezi Parrotfish, Cyphomyrus discorhynchus (Peters, 1852), and the resurrection of Cyphomyrus cubangoensis (Pellegrin, 1936). Journal of Natural History, Vol.45, Nos.43-44, November 2011, 2669–2699. [Available to download from the KVFW website here.]

UNESCO (June 2023) Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls Reactive Monitoring Mission (February 2022) Final Report. [Available to download from the UNESCO World Heritage website here.]

UNESCO (July 2023) Item 7B of the Provisional Agenda: State of conservation of properties inscribed on the of World Heritage List (WHC/23/45.COM/7B.Add). [Available to download from the UNESCO World Heritage website here.]

UNESCO (August 2023) 7B Amendment/Proposal 45 COM 7B.10 Submitted by the Delegation of South Africa, 26th August. [Available to download from the UNESCO World Heritage website here (direct download).]

Further Information

Read more on the background to the Batoka Gorge HydroElectric Scheme on the Keep Victoria Falls Wild website.

New Report raises questions over management of Victoria Falls World Heritage Site

(1st September 2023)

A new independent report raises serious questions over the management of Victoria Falls World Heritage Site in advance of the 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee, to be held 10-25th September 2023. The 2023 State of Development Report (7.2mb) has been commissioned by Keep Victoria Falls Wild, a group of concerned residents and individuals who are campaigning against a wave of proposed tourism developments which threaten the southern (Zimbabwean) side of the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site (VFWHS).

Lights from the newly constructed Baines Restaurant intrude over the view of 

the Devil's Cataract in a picture taken at night on a special tour 

to experience the lunar rainbow

The report raises widespread and serious concerns over the management of the Site, with conservation priorities ignored, concerns over the rapidly increasing number of tourism concessions within the area of the WHS, new concerns over the identification or the Site’s boundary, and significant and serious concerns over the boundary of management zones within the Site - with implications for recent developments within the Highly Ecologically Sensitive Zone (HESZ) which prevents the development of any new infrastructure (including a new National Park development, the 'rock pool', and the Baines Restaurant, immediately above the Falls).

"We believe the combined mismanagement and increasing tourism development pressures highlighted over the last few years raise serious concerns over the future viability of the World Heritage Site with serious negative impacts on the Site’s Outstanding Universal Values already caused by recent developments along Zambezi Drive ... The management of Site is in urgent need of detailed review and increasing scrutiny is needed to monitor and mitigate the negative impacts and pressures affecting the Site - and in which the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority appear themselves to be complicit by authorising and agreeing concession licenses within the HESZ. Failure to react strongly to the current wave of developments which threaten the Site will be seen as a green light to the State Parties to continue the commercial development, and ecological degradation, of the Site."

UNESCO World Heritage Committee 45th Session (10-25 September 2023)

The report concludes by responding to the recent World Heritage Committee draft documents, published in advance of the 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee to be held in September 2023, calling the current text inadequate to address the serious and urgent problems facing the Site, especially in relation to developments which have already been authorised by Park Authorities on the southern, Zimbabwean, side of the property. The wording of draft decision for Victoria Falls point 5 reads:

“5. Reiterates its concern over the increasing pressure from tourism infrastructure within and around the property, exacerbated by the absence of strategic planning and also requests the States Parties to produce a blueprint for infrastructure development in and around the property that ensures the protection of the property’s OUV, and to not approve any further developments until the blueprint is finalized and submitted to the World Heritage Centre, together with an impact assessment for each proposed project in accordance with the new Guidance and Toolkit for Impact Assessments in a World Heritage Context, prior to taking any decision that is difficult to reverse;” (World Heritage Committee, 2023, p.19)

The wording of the current draft request for the ‘blueprint’ overview appears to do nothing in terms of addressing the current wave of unsuitable developments within the WHS HESZ and which have already been authorised and agreed between the Zimbabwean National Park Authority and private tourism operators. The report continues:

"After the delays faced by the monitoring mission to the Site, originally requested in 2019 and only undertaken in February 2022, and the subsequent delays in the dates for the 45th Session, there is an urgent and pressing need for the Committee to further investigate and consider its response to the State Parties, and we urge the Committee to request an urgent review of all current development proposals within the World Heritage Site and surrounding Buffer Zone, and request that all current as well as further/future developments are immediately suspended pending submission and agreement of the detailed ‘blueprint’ and ESIA documents requested by the Committee.

"We further believe that the requested suspension on all new tourism developments and activities within the WHS should be maintained until an adequate (and IUCN/UNESCO approved) management plan for the Victoria Falls and Zambezi National Parks is in place and a new Joint Integrated Management Plan for the Site agreed, including addressing the management of the transport corridor and other areas within the WHS and surrounding Buffer Zone which are outside of National Park control an ignored in current reports presented by State Parties to UNESCO."

The report highlights that the World Heritage Committee has already missed the opportunity to influence some of these developments, which are now already completed and operational (including the Mosi-oa-Tunya Resort in Zambia, opened in December 2022, and Baines Restaurant in Zimbabwe, opened in mid-2023), and risks that others which are in advanced stages of planning and preparation (for example the riverside 'tree lodge' development in Zimbabwe among many others) will be completed before it has time to consider them. 

The report concludes:

"The Committee must act now to influence these developments and put a stop to the continued degradation and fragmentation of the Site. A clear response to the two already constructed and operational developments is also needed from the Committee."

Read More

Download the Keep Victoria Falls Wild 2023 State of Development Report (7.2mb) for more details on the extensive tourism development pressures facing the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site.

Read more on all these issues and developments on the Keep Victoria Falls Wild website, including the history of the Mosi-oa-Tunya Resort and Baines Restaurant developments.

Follow our Facebook page Keep Victoria Falls Wild for latest news and updates.

Please sign the online petition against the current wave of tourism development proposals which threaten the Victoria Falls World Heritage Site.

References

UNESCO (2023) Mosi-oa-Tunya/Victoria Falls Reactive Monitoring Mission (February 2022) Final Report. [Available to download from the UNESCO World Heritage website here.]

World Heritage Committee (2023) Item 7B of the Provisional Agenda: State of conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List (WHC.23.45.COM.7BAdd) p.16-9.