Statistical Analysis to Investigate the Possible Impact of Climate Change on Water Availability in Letaba River of South Africa

Abstract

Global warming and changing climate is a major concern in the water availability. Letaba River in South Africa is facing reduction in water availability and this paper is an attempt to understand impact of climate change on reservoirs of Letaba River in South Africa. The Letaba River System falls within the Limpopo basin. This is subdivided into three subsystems namely: Groot Letaba, Klein Letaba and lower Letaba. More than 20 dams are located in the Groot Letaba catchment. Most of the dams are having less water than there used to be earlier. The general perception for this change is related with the Climate change induced low precipitation and increased temperature in the river catchment. The historic climate and long term hydrology records are used for quantifying relationship between climate change and the amount of water in the Dam. The main long term hydrology parameters available in the department of water affairs on prominent rainfall stations of Letaba River catchment are temperature, stream flow and rainfall and their trend is the indicator of climate change in the Letaba River. A statistical analysis has been done to study the impact of climate change on the Letaba catchment.