Ward 2 Development Forum

Restoring the River: Water Skills at the Learning Campus

Properties3
descriptionA proposed core theme of the Valley of Grace Learning Campus: training young people to restore the Riviersonderend catchment and to be paid for the water it gives, once others have checked the results. Not yet agreed. To be tabled at the November 2026 meeting.
tagstheme/water, theme/environment, theme/youth, theme/trancraa, priority/education-skills, priority/conservation-environment, priority/business-procurement, lang/en
aliasesWater Yield, Water Skills, Catchment Restoration Skills

13 min read

This idea is not yet agreed. It is part of the thinking behind the Valley of Grace Learning Campus. None of the organisations named on this page have been asked about it yet. They include the Zonderend Water Users Association, Wild Restoration, the Greyton Conservation Society, the Transformasie Komitee, CapeNature, and The Nature Conservancy. Please do not share this page publicly yet. The idea will be tabled with the Learning Campus at the Forum’s November 2026 meeting.

What the letters in square brackets mean

Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.

  • [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
  • [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from the people putting this idea forward, or from the organisation the sentence names, in their own documents or statements. It has not been checked against other sources.
  • [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.

Statements without a tag are proposals. They describe what the idea could become.

The goal

By 2038, young people from every village in Ward 2 can earn a living by restoring the land that feeds the river and proving the water it gives.

Why the valley needs it

Invasive trees and water. Pines, wattles, and other invasive trees use far more water than fynbos. Clearing them puts water back into the streams that fill the dams [IC]. A 2019 study estimated that invasive plants already cut the water available from the Western Cape Water Supply System by about 38 million cubic metres a year. It found the loss would grow to about 130 million cubic metres a year within 45 years if nothing is done [TBV].

What cities pay for. After Cape Town’s drought of 2018, The Nature Conservancy set up the Greater Cape Town Water Fund to clear invasive plants in the catchments that fill the city’s dams [MS]. The Nature Conservancy says this gives water at about one tenth of the cost of desalination or new groundwater [MS]. In April 2026 FirstRand Bank listed a R2.5 billion bond on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange that pays for this clearing [IC]. Part of what investors earn depends on results that are checked independently [IC]. One of its investors says the work will create about 1,500 jobs [MS]. The people putting this idea forward expect cities to pay for more such work as the climate changes [MS].

The valley’s link to the system. The valley lies below Theewaterskloof Dam [IC]. Farmers along the Riviersonderend are entitled to water released from the dam, and so is the Overberg Water Board, which supplies Caledon and other towns [IC]. In the 2018 drought those farmers received only 60% of their allocation [IC]. The national map of strategic water source areas includes the Riviersonderend in the Boland area, which supplies 97.1% of Cape Town’s water [MS]. Whether the valley’s own mountain slopes fall inside that area has not been checked [TBV].

Work already under way. The Zonderend Water Users Association has cleared invasive trees along the river since 2017 and runs an indigenous plant nursery in Genadendal with a team of 14 workers [MS]. Wild Restoration clears invasive pines in the Riviersonderend mountains and at the Greyton Sandpit with a local team [MS]. The Greyton Conservation Society runs clearing days with volunteers [MS].

Qualifications. Qualifications for the clearing itself exist. The Further Education and Training Certificate: Environmental Practice (NQF 4) covers clearing invasive plants and caring for watercourses. It is quality-assured by the Local Government SETA, and its last date for new learners is 30 December 2027 [IC]. Nature conservation qualifications at NQF 4 train field rangers, including in helping to remove invasive species [MS]. The Energy and Water SETA offers learnerships in water and wastewater process control, which is the work of treatment plants [MS]. A search of registered qualifications for this page found none that teaches people to measure the water a restored catchment gives and prove it to an independent checker, so that it can be sold [TBV].

What the Forum asked for. At its first meeting, the Forum made education and skills one of its five priorities, and conservation and environment another [MS]. Farms and tourism businesses said they need more skilled workers [MS].

From needy to needed

The BioConomy work draws a line between two kinds of valley [MS]:

  • A needy valley asks donors for money to clear its land and hopes they say yes.
  • A needed valley offers a service that buyers already pay for, such as more water in the river, and shows independent proof that it delivered.

The people putting this idea forward say that few places anywhere have a body of research built for this change, and that the valley has one [MS]. It is set out on the BioConomy wiki and the Valley of Grace BioHub site [MS].

The campus would turn that research into skills. Clearing teams would stay at the heart of the work. They would also learn to measure what their work gives, so that the valley can offer it as a service and be paid for it.

What the campus would teach

Water would run through all four parts of the Learning Campus.

Part of the campusWhat water would look like there
The boarding school and the school of skillsClass projects on the Riviersonderend: walking the river, testing water, naming fynbos and invasive plants, and mapping how water moves. A Grade 12 project could be a costed plan to hold water on a piece of farmland.
The vocational training centreA practical course from clearing to contract (see below), open to school leavers, adults, and the clearing teams already working in the valley.
The Bioregional Learning CentreResearch on the valley’s water, and study for people who want to go further.

A course from clearing to contract

The training centre would teach five steps. Each step builds on the one before.

  1. Clear and restore. Remove invasive trees safely, replant with indigenous species, and manage fire risk. This step would use the qualifications that already exist, with the valley’s clearing teams and nursery as places of work.
  2. Measure. Record rainfall and river flow, check soil moisture, take photographs from fixed points, map cleared land with GPS, and log plants and animals on the Valley of Grace Nature Realm.
  3. Prove. Keep records to the standard an independent checker needs before a buyer will pay.
  4. Agree. Draw up stewardship agreements with the landowners whose land is being restored. On Farm 39 land this would go to the Transformasie Komitee first.
  5. Contract. Run a clearing and monitoring team as a business or co-operative, price its work, and tender for contracts.

Steps 2 to 5 are the new part. The campus would ask the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and the relevant SETAs to help turn them into a registered skills programme, so that learners earn a recognised qualification and employers can claim skills funding.

What the research centre would study

  • How much water restoration gives below the dam. The valley would measure its own river and publish the results.
  • Four ways to hold water in the land. Clearing invasive plants, restoring the soil so it soaks up rain like a sponge, farming that uses less water, and storing water in farm dams and wetlands. The BioConomy work groups these under the name Water Retention Landscapes [MS].
  • Who holds the water. Water in the valley is shared by custom (like Greyton’s leiwater turns), governed by law, sold at a price, and made by caring for the land. The BioConomy work argues that water held in all four ways lasts better than water held in one [MS].
  • Turning water rights into rights to regenerate flow. How the valley could do this within South African water law, with Kwaxala, which has done the same with logging rights in Canada. See From Water Access to Water Agency.
  • Rain and vegetation. People often say that healthy vegetation brings more rain. The BioConomy wiki’s review of the research finds support for this in some other parts of the world [MS]. For the Cape, where winter rain comes from ocean storms, it found no published study that shows it [MS]. The centre could study the question, and the valley would make no promise to buyers based on it.

Who would benefit

  • Young people in every village, who would gain a path into skilled, paid work in the valley.
  • The people already clearing, who could move from short-term jobs to skilled work.
  • Landowners and farmers, who would gain more water in the ground and less fire risk.
  • Farmers and towns downstream, who depend on the Riviersonderend.
  • The campus’s learners, whose projects would be real work on the valley’s own river.

Who would pay

Nothing has been costed [MS]. Money could come from several places:

  • Training. SETA grants and skills funding, once the course is registered. The campus fund from the boarding school’s rent, as set out on the Learning Campus page.
  • The work itself. Buyers who pay for checked results, such as water funds and performance bonds. The first bond pays for work in the catchments that fill Cape Town’s dams [IC]. The valley is not part of it. The Valley of Grace BioHub says its work to line up with the bond has not started [MS].
  • Other results from the same land. The same restored land may also store carbon and protect wildlife, and each could be paid for separately. This has not been tested here.

Who would decide

  • The trust that would run the Learning Campus would decide what the campus teaches.
  • Landowners would decide what happens on their land.
  • Anything on Farm 39 land would go to the Transformasie Komitee first.
  • Water rights stay under the National Water Act and with the bodies that hold them today, such as the Zonderend Water Users Association.

How it fits the Forum’s goal

The Forum’s long-term goal plans a BioConomy for the valley: keeping more of what the valley has in the valley, including water in the ground and skills in young people. It names clean rivers as something nobody pays for today. This idea is one way to change that.

It follows the three values of the long-term goal:

  • Cooperation (economic). Clearing teams, landowners, and buyers work together, and the valley is paid for what it gives.
  • Equality (civic). The training is open to young people from every village, and water stays governed for everyone who depends on it.
  • Freedom (cultural). The valley decides what it studies and how it teaches.

It serves three of the Forum’s priorities: Education and Skills, Conservation and Environment, and Business Development and Local Procurement.

What is still open

  • The water sums. How much extra water restoration below the dam would give, and whether a buyer would pay for it. No study has looked at this part of the river [TBV].
  • The strategic water source area. Whether the valley’s mountains fall inside the Boland area.
  • The qualifications. Whether any SETA or QCTO qualification already covers measuring and proving results. Which SETA would host a new skills programme. What replaces the Environmental Practice certificate after 2027.
  • The people already doing the work. What the Zonderend Water Users Association, Wild Restoration, and the Greyton Conservation Society think of the idea, and whether they would host learners. None has been asked.
  • Farm 39. The Transformasie Komitee’s view on restoration work and stewardship agreements on Farm 39 land. The Komitee has not been asked.
  • Other partners. Whether CapeNature, The Nature Conservancy, or the bond’s verifier, Conservation Alpha, would work with the valley. None has been asked.
  • Money. What the course would cost, and who would teach it.

What happens next

  1. The Zonderend Water Users Association, Wild Restoration, the Greyton Conservation Society, and the Transformasie Komitee are asked for their views.
  2. The idea is tabled with the Learning Campus at the Forum’s November 2026 meeting.
  3. The QCTO and the SETAs are asked which qualifications already cover these skills.
  4. If the Forum wants to go further, a first short course on measuring and recording could run with the valley’s existing clearing teams in 2027, before the campus is built.

Have your say

Contact the moderators via How to Submit, or come to the November meeting.

References

On invasive plants and water:

On the Cape Water Performance-Based Bond:

On the valley’s river:

  • Department of Water and Sanitation. Misinformation about water from Theewaterskloof Dam (January 2018). Releases from the dam to irrigators along the Riviersonderend and to the Overberg Water Board, curtailed to 60% in 2018.
  • Strategic Water Source Areas. Boland Mountains. The area’s rivers, including the Riviersonderend, and its share of Cape Town’s water.

On qualifications:

On the idea:

  • BioConomy Wiki. Needed vs. Needy. The difference between asking for money and offering a service buyers already pay for.
  • BioConomy Wiki. Water as a Compound Asset. Water held by custom, law, price, and restoration, and the four ways to hold water in the land.
  • BioConomy Wiki. Bioprecipitation. What the evidence says about vegetation and rainfall, and why the Cape is different.
  • Valley of Grace BioHub. Water Yield. The valley’s water service as its proposers describe it, and what is still needed before it can be offered.

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