Alpine plants are native to mountain districts. 

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Director of the ARU, Dr Ralph Clark, elaborates on the recent expansion on Alpine research that is taking place in the Maloti-Drakensburg. He says that the project will expand the comprehension of the ecology of the alpine zone and its similarity or dissimilarity with alpine and tundra environments.

“The Alpine system is critical to this water provisioning function but is under tremendous pressure from intense communal rangeland degradation. If the alpine system collapses, the water production will be detrimentally impacted,” says Clarke. He furthermore mentions the advantages that this unique research study has for farmers focusing on the impact the Maloti-Drakensburg has on water provision for farmers across the country.

Subsistence herders are large consumers of the alpine zone, using the summer pastures for their livestock, says Clark. Those uncultivated pastures are used very intensely, which is the natural grassland in the Alpine Zone, adds Clark. He goes on to say that this has a tremendous impact on the landscape and could possibly be seen as the biggest concern for the sustainability of the system, including water provision to South Africa.

“Very few people realise that what happens in our mountains has an almost country-wide impact. So the Maloti-Drakensburg, as a system, is our primary water tower for Southern Africa, so whatever happens in that system has a major knock-on effect down the line. 

"So, if we take the irrigation farmers down the Gariep River as far as Upington and even further; they’re all dependent on water that comes from the Maloti-Drakensburg,” says Clark.

He cautions that whatever happens in the Maloti-Drakensburg has a wide-range effect on the 30 million people that the tower provides with water.

Ultimately, he encourages people to be mindful and supportive of research in the mountains as the occurrences in those mountains directly affect the water provision for most of Southern Africa. He concludes by encouraging people to, when turning open taps, say a special thank you to the catchment areas in the mountains.

OFM News/Lee Simmons