Redressing inequality South Africa's new water policy

Environment

Volumn 49, Issue 3, 2007, Pages 10-23

  Funke, Nikki ^a,b   Nortje, Karen ^b,c   Findlater, Kieran ^d   Burns, Mike ^c   Turton, Anthony ^d   Weaver, Alex ^d   Hattingh, Hanlie ^b,c  

^a Future production Chemicals Cluster   (South Africa)

^b Water Resource Governance Systems Research Group

^c CSIR ^*

^d CSIR

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34547953557     PISSN: 00139157     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3200/ENVT.49.3.10-25     Document Type: Review

References (73)

1. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), A History of the First Decade of Water Services Delivery in South Africa: 1994-2004 (Pretoria, 2004).
2. South Africa is one of the 20 most water-deficient countries in the world with an annual rainfall of 19.36 inches (497 millimeters (mm)), much less than the world average of 33.86 inches (860 mm). Rainfall in South Africa is also highly seasonal and very unevenly distributed with 65 percent of the country receiving less than 19.68 inches (500 mm) per year. See P. Ashton and B. Haasbroek, "Water Demand Management and Social Adaptive Capacity: A South African Case Study," in A. R. Turton and R. Henwood, eds., Hydropolitics in the Developing World: A Southern African Perspective (Pretoria: African Water Issues Research Unit, 2002), 187-204. All indications are that South Africa will reach the limits of its potentially accessible water supplies between 2020 and 2030, a situation that is likely to be aggravated by the effects of climate change.
3. See H. Mackay, "Background: Pressures for Change in the Water Sector," in D. Reed and M. de Wit, eds., Towards a Just South Africa: The Political Economy of Natural Resource Wealth (Washington, DC: WWF Macroeconomic Programme, 2003): 49-76.
4. In summary, the purpose of the Water Services Act of 1997 is to provide for the right of access to basic water supply and the right to basic sanitation. In addition, national standards and norms and tariffs for water services have to be set, while water services institutions have to be assisted financially and held accountable for their actions. Acts Online, 2007, Water Services Act, Act 108 of 1997, http://www.acts.co.za/water_serv/index.htm
5. The purpose of the National Water Act of 1998 is to ensure that South Africa's water resources are protected, used, developed, conserved, managed, and controlled in ways which take into the following factors: meeting the basic human needs of present and future generations; promoting equitable access to water; redressing the results of past racial and gender discrimination: promoting the efficient, sustainable, and beneficial use of water in the public interest; facilitating social and economic development; providing for growing demand for water use; protecting aquatic and associated ecosystems and their biological diversity; reducing and preventing pollution and degradation of water resources; meeting international obligations; promoting dam safety; and managing floods and droughts. To achieve this goal, it called for establishing suitable institutions and ensuring that they have appropriate community, racial, and gender representation. Acts Online, 2007, National Water Act, Act 36 of 1998, http://www.acts.co.za/ntl_water/.
6. The Khoisan, as is the case with many of the other indigenous peoples of South Africa, have lived a history of marginalisation and disenfranchisement, mainly as a result of the exclusionary policies of colonialism and, subsequently, apartheid. Today, they are a near-extinct society, as illustrated by the "dead" language of the /xam people, now only used as the motto of the new South African coat of arms. See L. Guelkc and R. Shell, "Landscape of Conquest: Frontier Water Alienation and Khoikhoi Strategies of Survival, 1652-1780," Journal of Southern African Studies 18, no. 4 (1992): 803-24.
7. Guelke and Shell, ibid., page 805.
8. C. G. Hall, The Origin and Development of Water Rights in South Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1939);
9. C. G. Hall and A. P. Burger, Hall on Water Rights in South Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1957);
10. H. Thompson, Water Law: a Practical Approach to Resource Management and the Provision of Services (Cape Town: Juta & Co Ltd, 2006).
11. Guelke and Shell, note 5 above, page 811.
12. Guelke and Shell, note 5 above, page 816.
13. L. C. Duly, "The Failure of British Land Policy at the Cape, 1812-1821," Journal of African History 6, no. 3: 357-71.
14. H. Thompson, note 7 above, page 36.
15. A. Turton, et al., "Gold, Scorched Earth and Water: the Hydropolitics of Johannesburg," International Journal of Water Resources Development 22, no. 2 (2006): 313-35.
16. A. D. Lewis, Water Law: Its Development in the Union of South Africa (Cape Town and Johannesburg: Juta is Co. Ltd, 1934).
17. Union of South Africa, Report of the Director of Irrigation for the Period 1st April, 1928, to 31st March, 1929, Doc. No. U.G. No. 9-'30 (Pretoria, 1930).
18. T. van Rensburg, Camp Diary of Henrietta E. C. Armstrong: Experiences of a Boer Nurse in the Irene Concentration Camp 6 April to 11 October 1901 (Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council, 1980).
19. Republic of South Africa (RSA), Report on the Supplementary Drainage Works for the Riel River Government Water Scheme, Report No. W.P. J-77 (Pretoria, 1977).
20. A. R. Turton, R. Meissner, P. M. Mampane, and O. Seremo, A Hydropolitical History of South Africa's International River Basins, Water Research Commission Report No. 1220/1/04 (Pretoria: Water Research Commission, 2004).
21. Thompson, note 7 above, 58-60.
22. The NP government's policy of discouraging migration from rural to urban areas could also have played a part here, as this required the provision of jobs to Black people living in rural areas. See Mackay, note 2 above, page 50.
23. The Natives' Land Act (Act No. 27 of 1913) institutionalized exclusive White ownership of land outside of the demarcated "native" areas, while the Group Areas Act (Act No. 41 of 1950) brought into effect "race zoning" in South Africa. The latter also supported influx controls implemented by the government as the majority of the Black population was "relocated" to resettlement camps in the "independent" homelands. See G. Budlender and J. Latsky, "Unravelling Rights to Land in Rural Race Zones," in M. de Klerk, ed., A Harvest of Discontent: The Land Question in South Africa (Cape Town: IDASA, 1991).
24. Republic of South Africa (RSA), Report on the Crocodile River (Eastern Transvaal) Government Waterwork (Sterkspruit Dam), Doc. No. W.P. T-'75 (Pretoria, 1975).
25. Republic of South Africa (RSA), Report on the Proposed Grootdraai Dam Emergency Augmentation Scheme, Doc. No. W.P. K-'83 (Pretoria, 1983);
26. Republic of South Africa (RSA), Report on the Proposed Extension of the Usutu-Vaal River Government Water Scheme (Doubling of the Pipelines between the Grootdraai Dam and the Trichardtsfontein Balancing Dam), Doc. No. W.P. L-'83 (Pretoria, 1983).
27. Mackay, note 2 above, page 51.
28. Mackay, see note 2 above, page 49.
29. According to the South African Constitution (Section 24 in the Bill of Rights), everyone has the right: a)to an environment that is not harmful to their health or well-being; and b) to have the environment protected, for the benefit of present and future generations, through reasonable legislative and other measures that-c) prevent pollution and ecological degradation; (i) promote conservation; and (ii) secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources while promoting justifiable economic and social development. (Republic of South Africa (RSA), Constitution of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996 (Pretoria, 1996).)
30. B. Schreiner, B. van Koppen and T. Khumbane, "From Bucket to Basin: a New Paradigm for Water Management, Poverty Eradication and Gender Equity," in A. R. Turton and R. Henwood, eds., Hydropolitics in the Developing World: a Southern African Perspective (Pretoria: African Water Issues Research Unit, 2002): 127-40.
31. Ibid., page 127.
32. According to the National Water Act, central government stays responsible for certain functions including policy formulation and regulation, development and maintenance of a national water resource strategy (which sets out the long-term goals and objectives for water management at the national level) and joint management of international catchments. The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry also retains responsibility for specifying the requirements of the "reserve," the international water requirements to be set aside for meeting possible future contingencies and the quantity of water needed for strategic uses that are of national importance (see Mackay, note 2 above, page 62).
33. Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), Vsutu to Mhlatuze Water Management Area: Internal Strategic Perspective, Report No. P WMA 06/000/00/0304 (Pretoria, 2004).
34. B. W. Raven, Water Affairs in the Lower Blyde River: the Role of DWAF in Local Water Management, IWMI Working Paper (Wageningen, 2004).
35. Mackay, note 2 above, page 62.
36. Ibid., page 64.
37. According to the National Water Act and the public trust doctrine that it encapsulates, the South African government is ultimately responsible to ensure that "water is protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in a sustainable and equitable manner for the benefit of all persons and in accordance with its Constitutional mandate." The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry has the executive responsibility to ensure that water is allocated equitably and used beneficially in the public interest. At the same lime, environmental values must be promoted. R. Stein, "Water Sector Reforms in Southern Africa: Some Case Studies," in A. R. Turton and R. Henwood, eds., Hydropolitks in the Developing World: a Southern African Perspective (Pretoria: African Water Issues Research Unit, 2002): 113-23.
38. Ibid., page 119.
39. Mackay, note 2 above, page 55-56.
40. What is problematic is that most people who have ready access to formal water services and those who use large quantities of water in the industrial and agricultural sectors see water as cheap and plentiful. What is necessary is for the country to adopt a culture of water saving by applying demand management policies. Successful water demand management will mean that a policy combining effective education and awareness-raising is needed along with the implementation of economic instruments that will help different sectors self-regulate their water use. Education programs can be seen as long-term interventions which require considerable leadership and commitment from the government, while economic instruments would have to be phased in slowly to counteract the long-standing effects of artificially low water prices in the past without causing significantly negative impacts on the national economy (see Mackay, note 2 above, page 74-75).
41. South Africa's National Water Act makes provision for public consultation, with the Minister being obliged to take comments from the public into account in the process of decisionmaking. Access to information is also guaranteed by the act, which means that information that affects the public must be made available, including flood and drought warnings; any risks imposed by the quality of water to life, health, or property; and any other matter that may be necessary to achieve the goals of the National Water Act (section 142). See Stein, note 33 above, page 120.
42. Ibid., page 119.
43. Republic of South Africa (RSA), Water Services Act, Act No, 108 of 1997 (Pretoria: Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, 1997),
44. N. Funke, S. H. H. Oelofse, J. Hattingh, P. J. Ashton and A. R. Turton, "IWRM in Developing Countries: Lessons from the Mhlatuze Catchment in South Africa," Paper presented at the 7th WaterNet/WARFSA/GWP-SA Symposium in Lilongwe, Malawi from 1-3 November 2006.
45. Unfortunately, it is not likely that smaller municipalities, particularly those in remote rural areas, will easily emulate the example set by Durban. The reason for this is that smaller local authorities have much more limited financial resources and simply cannot afford the development and maintenance costs required to sustain free water supplies. Another way of attaching "value" to water is of course by changing people's behavior and altitudes so that they think carefully about how much water to use in their daily lives and end up wasting less of this precious resource. Here, it is important to mention a project that has managed to successfully reduce annual water consumption by some 16.5 percent in the Hermanus area (Western Cape, South Africa). The Greater Hermanus Water Conservation Program, which consisted of a suite of short- and long-term technical and economic techniques along with an intensive awareness campaign, enhanced responsiveness among all water users, and reduced water consumption to within target levels. During this process, water users accepted both the rationale for this water demand management program and also demonstrated their individual commitment to the process, thereby ensuring the success of the program. See Ashton and Haasbroek, note 2 above, page 194. Such a change in behavior will be necessary throughout the country if South Africa's water demand levels are to decrease. It would be good for other municipalities to leam from Hermanus in this regard and to start implementing similar programs, as such change is likely to best be effected at the local level.
46. The sustainable management of natural resources also necessitates tradeoffs to be made between social, economic, and environmental imperatives to find an appropriate balance. The national classification system for water resources that the National Water Act makes provision for has the purpose of classifying water resources according to the degree to which they should be protected or used for development purposes. In terms of this provision, some water resources may be classified as requiring a high level of protection due to their value to society and may consequently receive a higher class and a more conservative "reserve." Other water resources, on the other hand, may be assigned a lower class and a correspondingly lower "reserve" because they have been earmarked for development purposes. The latter would still be afforded protection but without additional safety factors (see Mackay, note 2 above, pages 59-60). The process of defining management classes for each river system and then providing quantitative estimates of what percentage of each river should be conserved for "reserve" purposes is still continuing. What is important to note is that the success or failure of these approaches depends largely on the effectiveness of individual water resource managers as well as the effective functioning of the catchment management agencies, many of which still have to be established (see Ashton and Haasbroek, note 2 above, page 193).
47. DWAF, Overview of Water Resources Availability and Utilisation, Report No. P WMA 06/000/00/0203 (Pretoria, 2003).
48. Stein, note 33 above, page 122.
49. Stein, note 33 above, page 122.
50. J. Hattingh, G. Maree, S. Oelofse, A. Turton, and E. van Wyk, "Environmental Governance and Equity in a Democratic South Africa," paper presented at the AWRA/IWLRI International Conference on Water Law Governance in Dundee, Scotland, 2004.
51. Funke, Oelofse, J, Hattingh, Ashton and Turton, note 40 above, page 13.
52. S. Pollard and D. du Toit, "Achieving Integrated Water Resource Management: The Mismatch in Boundaries Between Water Resources Management and Water Supply," International Workshop on African Water Laws: Plural Legislative Frameworks for Rural Water Management in Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa, 26-28 January 2005.
53. Ibid., page 9
54. Ibid., page 9.
55. J. Hattingh, Marco, Oelofse, Turton, and van Wyk, note 46 above, page 6.
56. P. J. Ashton, "The Role of Good Governance in Sustainable Development: Implications for Integrated Water Resources Management in Southern Africa," in A. R. Turton et al., eds., Governance as a Trialogue- Government-Societv-Science in Transition (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2007): 80-100.
57. J. Hattingh, Maree, Oelofse, Turton, and van Wyk, note 46 above, page 5.
58. A promising exception to this overall tendency was the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), which managed to mobilize substantial skills of negotiation between various parties with opposing views in the run-up to the first democratic elections in 1994. This initiative therefore demonstrated how South Africans from a range of diverse backgrounds are able to cooperate under a set of specific, and in this case crucially important, conditions. See R. Spitz and M. Chaskalson, The Politics of Transition; a Hidden History of South Africa's Negotiated Settlement (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2000).
59. J. Hattingh, Maree, Oelofse, Turton, and van Wyk, note 46 above, page 6.
60. R. Adler, N. Funke, K, Findlater, and A. R. Turton, The Changing Relationship between the Government and the Mining Industry In South Africa: A Critical Assessment of the Far West Rand Dolomitic Water Association and the State Coordinating Technical Committee (Pretoria: Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), 2006).
61. "Research Seeks Answers for Century-Old Problem", The Water Wheel 4, no. 2 (March/April 2005): 16-21.
62. Adler, Funke, Findlater, and Turton, note 56 above, page 4.
63. Adler, Funke, Findlater, and Turton, note 56 above. A case in point is the Far West Rand of South Africa where there is rising concern over heavy metal and radionuclide contamination in the Wonderfontein Spruit Catchment. The current government has commissioned the first public domain studies on this topic, which show heavy metal contamination up to 40 times the internationally accepted norm. H. Coetzee, F. Winde and P. W. Wade, An Assessment of Sources, Pathways, Mechanisms and Risks of Current and Potential Future Pollution of Water and Sediments in Gold-Mining Areas of the Wonderfonteinspruit Catchment, WRC Report No. 1214/1/06 (Pretoria: Water Research Commission, 2006). This poses a significant challenge technically and will test the government's credibility in the near future. The very fact that the government chose to fund these reports and release them as public domain documents is empirical evidence that it is serious about meeting its Constitutional mandate for historic redress, social and environmental justice, and intergenerational equality. It remains to be seen, however, to which extent it will successfully be able to resolve this potentially explosive situation in practice.
64. C. de Coning and T. Sherwill, An Assessment of the Water Policy Process in South Africa (1994 to 2003), Water Research Commission Report TT232/04 (Pretoria, 2004).
65. Due to high levels of illiteracy in rural areas in South Africa, posters and brochures may not be sufficient to communicate messages about local water management. Other forms of communication will have to be developed.
66. Schreiner et al., note 26 above, page 139.
67. A. R.Turton, J. Hattingh, M. Claassen, D. J. Roux and P. J. Ashton, "Towards a Model for Ecosystem Governance: An Integrated Water Resource Management Example," in A.R. Turton et al., eds., Governance as a Trialogue - Government-Society-Science in Transition (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2007).
68. J. Hattingh, Maree, Oelofse, Turton, and van Wyk, note 46 above, page 1-3.
69. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report 2006. Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crisis (New York: United Nations Development Programme, 2006).
70. Ibid., page 63.
71. M. A. Max-Neef, "Foundations of Transdisciplinarity," Ecological Economics 53, (2005): 5-16.
72. R.W. Kates et al., "Sustainability Science," Science, 27 April 2001, 641-42.;
73. M. Burns, M. Audouin, and A. Weaver, "Advancing Sustainability Science in South Africa," South African Journal of Science 102, no. 9/10 (September/October 2006): 379-84.