Abstract
South Africa is a developing country undergoing social and ecological transformation. Water service delivery (i) exemplifies the challenge of improvement and transformation towards a more socially and ecologically just situation, and (ii) can usefully be viewed as a complex social-ecological system (C-SES) in the search for ‘just transitions’. Household water security problems associated with water service delivery in South Africa are recognisably intractable, multi-scaled, comprising many actors and elements and having no single solution. There is a global and South African trend towards systemic approaches to addressing such complex water challenges. However, the steps required to take a systemic approach are seldom explicit. This paper presents the analytical process of defining boundaries, identifying elements and exploring relationships between elements as the foundational step in a study of the Makana Local Municipality water service delivery C-SES in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The resulting narrative and heuristics provide a clear systemic basis from which to research the emergence, practice and social learning process of a civil society organisation (Water for Dignity) seeking to confront water service delivery issues in the Makana Local Municipality. Keywords: complex adaptive systems, systems inquiry, household water service delivery, civil society organisation
Highlights
For at least two decades, the fair provision of adequate water services to all in an ecologically sustainable and economically efficient manner has been a high priority in South Africa (RSA, 1998; DWA, 2013)
We demonstrate a methodology for initial steps in engaging in complex socialecological systems (C-SES) inquiry in the context of household water service delivery in the case of the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape of South Africa
This paper demonstrates the foundational steps of a systems inquiry through the case of the Makana Local Municipality water management C-SES: namely, defining the situation of interest, bounding the system, identification of key elements and relationships, and describing key problematic relationships
Summary
For at least two decades, the fair provision of adequate water services to all in an ecologically sustainable and economically efficient manner has been a high priority in South Africa (RSA, 1998; DWA, 2013). We demonstrate a methodology for initial steps in engaging in C-SES inquiry in the context of household water service delivery in the case of the Makana Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape of South Africa.
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