Transforming Water Management in South Africa

This chapter describes the political, social and economic context in which South Africa’s water reform was designed and implemented. The water reform was part of the nation’s wider transformation after 1994 from white minority rule and territorial and institutional segregation, to a democratic, non-racial state. This implied a major challenge to redress the legacy of gross inequities in access to water for domestic and productive uses and the persistently high poverty levels, especially in the rural areas. For a better understanding of the continuities and changes from the past for all aspects of water reform discussed in this volume, the history of water development and management in apartheid South Africa is traced. This encompasses the removal of land and water rights from black South Africans by the early 1900s; the hydraulic mission for white agriculture throughout the twentieth century; and the emergence of the centrally planned, urban-industrialized water economy from the 1970s onwards. Many concepts that would globally be seen as ‘best practice’ Integrated Water Resource Management according to the Dublin principles of 1992 originate in that era. The chapter concludes by introducing the subsequent chapters in this light.

This chapter provides background to the state of water resources in South Africa and how those resources have been strategically developed and managed and the policy environment that guided their allocation and use pre- and post-1994. The topography and weather patterns strongly influence rainfall and evaporation, which result in highly varying rainfall patterns and even more erratic surface run-off. Requirements for water and the resultant needs for the development of the resource have also been strongly influenced by social, political and economic factors. The chapter gives a brief account of the water supply and management infrastructure that was developed. The current overall balance between available water and water requirements is also analysed as well as the challenges that water resource managers in South Africa are currently facing in a country that is rapidly approaching the limits of its available fresh water supplies.

Since 1994, South Africa’s government has demonstrated profound commitment to achieving universal access to water and sanitation – through ambitious policy reforms, institutional restructuring and substantial funding for infrastructure development and operating subsidies. It has met its 2015 MDG goals for both water services and sanitation. But the country as a whole has underestimated what it takes to sustain effective water services: expanding access is comparatively straightforward when compared to the challenges of providing an ongoing service, with all the inherent challenges of strategic management, operation and maintenance, revenue administration and relationship building. Concurrent local government restructuring has meant that infrastructure expansion has generally outpaced the institutional development needed to run the new services. Moreover, top-down, target driven delivery has largely marginalised and alienated ordinary people. Many municipalities have not resourced their water services functions appropriately, and there are severe municipal skills gaps. In response to poor services, unresponsive councillors and corruption, social protest action soared in 2009. Government is now giving priority to a comprehensive turnaround strategy to strengthen local government and its service delivery performance. But the more services are expanded and upgraded, the greater the need for operating subsidies, because the levels of service being provided – certainly in urban areas – are not affordable to a large percentage of the population. Growing dependence of municipalities on grants means that far greater attention must also be given to the efficiency of providing services, to contain costs. Meanwhile leaks and losses associated with neglected maintenance create supply bottlenecks, and raise the costs of provision. Improved management of water services is imperative to enable the inclusive growth and development that South Africans need to escape from high levels of poverty.

In South Africa, flush toilets have historically been associated with white privilege, and dry toilets with racial discrimination. The sector slogan ‘Sanitation is Dignity’ has deep resonance, and in urban areas, anything other than a flush toilet is regarded as inferior and at best an interim option. The emphasis on dignity, rights and aspirations has led to a focus on toilet technologies, rather than on integrated sanitation improvement. But rapid extension of reticulated water and sanitation infrastructure is creating significant bulk infrastructure bottlenecks; the focus on meeting coverage and bucket eradication targets far bolder than the MDGs is compromising sound operation and maintenance, and there is widespread evidence of wastewater treatment failures which have severe consequences for human health and the natural resource base.

This paper maps some challenges around service provision and sanitation improvement in urban South Africa. It argues that a rights-based approach to providing water and sanitation is a hollow promise if the service is unsustainable and prone to failure; and that a shortage of skills to operate and manage sewered systems is an even greater threat to sustainability than funding gaps. It is generally the poorest and most vulnerable who wait the longest for service improvements, and who are most risk when services fail. There are compelling reasons to pursue less water-dependent, less-polluting approaches to sanitation improvement, but a comprehensive shift in approach is unlikely soon. In the interim, more robust systems are needed which have lower skills requirements and a reduced risk of failure. Given the urgency of service improvements – particularly in informal settlements – in a context of extremely high HIV and TB infection levels, South Africa does not have the luxury of plentiful time.

The onset of democracy in South Africa provided the opportunity to make sweeping changes to legislation to allow for the proactive reallocation of water to address the effects of past racial discrimination. This is done through compulsory licensing provisions in the National Water Act. However, this process must balance the need to address social inequity, inefficiency in water use, economic growth and environmental sustainability with the rights of existing water users and the contribution they make to the economy and job creation.

Water reallocation reform can realise race and gender targets, and widespread reallocations to large numbers of the rural poor may make radical inroads into reducing rural poverty. Equally, redress is important for social and political stability. Key lessons have emerged from South Africa’s approaches to balancing these considerations which are addressed in this chapter.

A global and South African context is provided for the policy and legislative requirements to ensure water ecosystem protection and sustainable use of water resources.

The South African resource directed measures (RDM) strategy is analysed in terms of the methods, components and their application in the implementation of provisions of the country’s water legislation. The analyses include the determination and implementation of the ecological Reserve, water resource classification and the setting of resource quality objectives. It is concluded that the success of the implementation of water resource protection strategies can only be evaluated in term of the degree to which they are achieving the sustainable use and protection of water resources and their associated ecosystems. Monitoring, implementation and enforcement is the next challenge that is confronting South Africa in order to build on the successful method and policy developments that have taken place during the past decade.

This chapter highlights the decentralisation of water resources management to a local level through the establishment of Catchment Management Agencies (CMA). The first 8 of 19 proposed CMAs have been established and a number of institutional challenges have been identified. Stakeholder participation in the establishment of CMAs has been largely successful, but the process of establishment has been too slow and further delayed by a review of the number of CMAs to be established. The Inkomati experience shows that a lack of coherent support from DWAF and building the credibility of the institution in the water management area have been major challenges. The fact that DWAF is the driver and initiator of CMA establishment placed huge strain on the already-limited human capacity that had to perform these tasks in addition to daily water resource management activities.

Although the decentralisation-based reforms for water management define a critical role for communities and users at large, the state must, and will continue to, play a fundamental role because of its responsibility for managing water as a public good and for ensuring redress, equitable allocation of water and equitable representation in decision-making. As a water-scarce country, the need to safeguard the sustainable provision of ecosystem goods and services and to protect the interests and welfare of all users, especially the poor, women and the disabled becomes critical.

Since South Africa is a water scarce country, water resources planning is a critical part of ensuring national water security. Since 1994, there has been a paradigm shift to a more holistic approach to water resources planning, underpinned by South Africa’s enabling Constitutional provisions, legislative framework and water policy, and implementation challenges. This new paradigm involves an integrated approach to water quality and quantity (for both surface water and groundwater) as well as consideration of water conservation and demand management, reuse/recycling, desalination and other options for water security at various levels of planning.

This chapter examines how planning for raw water supply contributes to ensuring equity in access for the livelihood of communities and to the economic growth and sustainable development of the country. As part of this, the alignment of water resource planning activities with provincial and local government needs, and some of the associated challenges, also forms part of the discussion. Infrastructure development, its role in water security and access, and related institutional arrangements are also addressed.

The National Water Act (Act No.36 of 1998) recognises that water is a scarce and unevenly distributed national resource and that it is the responsibility of Government to ensure that the resource is managed in an equitable and sustainable manner. Due to the high costs and limited exploitable potential associated with supply-side water management solutions, demand-side management is becoming increasingly critical to ensure water security in South Africa. Fundamental to this approach is the appropriate pricing of water resources. The current water act aims to apply water pricing tiers based on the principles of economic efficiency, social equity, financial sustainability and ecological integrity. Failure to implement both supply-side and demand-side water management strategies effectively may result in the prospect of South Africa facing chronic water scarcity within 2–3 decades.

Gender mainstreaming figures high in the post-1994 policies and laws in South Africa in general, and water policies in particular. This chapter analyses the implementation of these policies in two domains: within DWAF as a gender-sensitive workplace with sound gender training of its staff, and externally in the performance of DWAF in implementing its mandate for the benefit of all its citizens, in particular poor black women. In this task, gender concerns were effectively mainstreamed as part of the general efforts to democratise water management, especially in the creation of new equitable institutions such as Catchment Management Agencies and in public participation processes. Changes appeared more difficult in existing male-dominated institutions, though. With regard to the core issue of improving women’s access to water, the water services efforts implicitly benefitted women in particular. In contrast, women’s access to water for small-scale productive uses has deteriorated.

The primary aim of water information systems management is to serve the social processes which give the information systems context and meaning. The social processes related to water in South Africa have changed substantially in the past 25 years and particularly since 1994. This chapter will consider the past, present and future roles of information systems management in the context of these changes. The central issues of access, affordability, and balancing power relations with respect to information in an increasingly complex web of integrated water and social systems are key themes in this chapter.

The subject of water has many organizational and disciplinary facets. It is not the intention of this chapter to deal with the role of information in each of these in detail. The approach has been to explain and explore the key strategic elements of the role of information systems management in the management of water in South Africa, particularly in relation to water resources management, although many of the messages which follow are generic and apply to both the water services and water resources realms. The decision to distil out the generic messages has been a conscious one that is consistent with approaches to deepen understanding of management issues in situations where a focus on specific content may blind the reader to key management issues. It is commonly stated that ‘information is power’. This is particularly true in the complex historical, geographical and water setting of South Africa. Issues of access, affordability, complexity, interpretation and balancing knowledge power relations in the dynamic, democratic interplay amongst role players, with respect to water related information, are of central importance.

The South African water sector endeavours to ensure that scarce water resources are, and will continue to be, managed and used optimally and sustainably for the benefit of all citizens. Given the numerous and often serious challenges faced by the sector, strong support is needed in the area of research and development (R&D).

Since 1971, water-related research and development on behalf of the government and water sector of South Africa has been vested in the Water Research Commission (WRC). Funded in terms of the Water Research Act of 1971 through a levy on water use, the WRC reports to Parliament through the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry. The WRC commissions research to address identified needs and disseminates resulting knowledge with a view to solving water-related problems. The WRC also plays a key role in capacity building in the water sector.

In order to contextualise the current South African approach to transboundary water resources management this chapter provides a brief background of the political and legal developments leading towards the establishment of the Orange/Senqu River Commission and the ongoing activities of the Commission. This illustrates the change of direction of South Africa’s approach to transboundary water management after 1994.

Thereafter the chapter provides an overview of the current SADC policy framework, namely the Regional Water Policy and Regional Water Strategy and the SADC Protocol on Shared Watercourses as the most important regional instruments governing transboundary water resources management. The increasingly important developments at the continental level, particularly under the umbrella of the African Ministers’ Council on Water (AMCOW), are also illustrated in this section.

Finally, the chapter describes the Incomaputo-Agreement, to which South Africa is a Party, as an advanced model of transboundary cooperation in water management. The Incomaputo-Agreement is the first basin-wide water management agreement concluded in the southern African region and covers a comprehensive range of issues including water allocation between countries, water quality control and emergency measures. Using the Incomaputo-Agreement as an example, the chapter discusses issues of assessing water entitlements as well as institutional arrangements to implement a basin-wide agreement and enforce its provisions domestically in South Africa.

This book discusses some issues of water policy and its implementation in South Africa. This chapter highlights some key, overarching issues related to the implementation of water policy in South Africa. These issues are discussed in the context of good water governance, based on three principles: a professional bureaucracy; predictable, open and enlightened policy making; and a strong civil society active in public affairs. The chapter closes with some discussion on some of the key challenges and priority actions in moving forward.