The South African Water Sector: on its Way Towards Adaptive Water Governance?

Abstract

The African continent is likely to be highly affected by the consequences of climate change. The ensuing projected changes in the ecological system such as decreasing water availability and higher amplitudes of droughts and floods require responses from the social system, i.e. adaptation measures. Even though climate modelling is still plagued by high uncertainty, models suggest a reduction of precipitation and runoff for South Africa. This poses a major threat for South Africa, which depends heavily on surface water and whose water resources are already under stress. Adaptive governance has been proposed as an approach that provides a way to cope with rising uncertainty and environmental change. Against the background of decreasing water availability and in addition to technical solutions, adaptive water governance structures can serve as an important element for increasing water use efficiency, adaptive capacity and resilience of the water sector. The first part of the paper takes a conceptual approach towards adaptive water governance. It suggests characterizing adaptive water governance by referring to and merging elements of good governance, water governance and adaptive governance. In the second part of the paper, some of the elements of adaptive water governance are examined with regard to their relevance for South Africa’s water governance reforms. The paper concludes that, on the one hand, progress can be attested with regard to (1) a high level of flexibility built in the national water legislation, especially the National Water Act, (2) the provision of buffer capacities regarding institutions for solving water conflicts (redundancy), (3) the high level of participation of stakeholders at many levels and (4) the provision of equitable access to water. On the other hand, some (unintended) negative implications of these developments are documented. Among them are (1) the time-consuming processes of elaborating procedures and guidelines in the process of implementation, (2) the potentially negative effects of functional overlaps of CMA and regional offices of DWA, (3) effectively involving relevant stakeholders and (4) the lacking long-term sustainability of water infrastructure due to lack of capacity and capital.KeywordsAdaptationAdaptive governanceWater governanceGood governanceResilienceSouth Africa