A Review of Water Storage for Socio-Economic Development in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa’s water resources are limited and unevenly distributed. To overcome the uneven spread of water resources and to manage floods and drought, more than two thirds of the country’s mean annual rainfall is currently stored in dams. The paper reviews the current water storage capacity of the country at national and provincial levels. Data from a list of registered dams in the country were used to analyse the water storage capacity of the country. Water storage capacity is highest in Free State Province and lowest in Gauteng Province. The results also show that, while it is clear that the country has invested a lot in developing water storage infrastructure, there is potential for the development of additional infrastructure. However, since most of the major rivers are transboundary, the country needs to develop additional storage with full consideration of its ecological requirements and international obligations.