Progress with Water Allocation Reform in South Africa - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 359

Chapter 24.
Progress with Water Allocation Reform in South Africa

Ashwin R. Seetal 1

In implementing South Africa's National Water Act (36 of 1998), the Water Allocation
Reform (WAR) programme is a proactive intervention to address race and gender
imbalances created in the water sector as a result of historical discriminatory legislation
in the country. Its conceptualisation and implementation fits firmly within the ambit of
integrated water resources management (IWRM); however, its focus is primarily socio-
political, dealing with the re-distributive aspects of water allocation reform. WAR has a
formally legislated political mandate and its scale is national. Although it is primarily
socio-political in its focus, a wide range of specialist considerations supports it. For
these reasons, the programme is multidisciplinary and complex. Success with its
implementation will result in greater socio-political and socio-economic stability for the
country, and support the contention that socio-centric elements of IWRM are equally, if
not more, important than techno-centric ones in particular instances. The paper describes
an IWRM implementation approach with socio-politics at its forefront, one that is
purposeful and process-driven as a potential recipe for success. In addition, potential
risks and threats are identified and their likely impacts briefly highlighted.

1. Introduction

Water Allocation Reform (WAR) in South Africa forms part of the government's
overall post-apartheid programme of reform and redress of past discriminatory legislation
that started with the advent of democracy in 1994. Within the water sector, reform
commenced formally in 1995 with the Water Law Review process (DWAF 1995, 1997a).
This legal review process culminated in the “White Paper on a National Water Policy for
South Africa” (DWAF 1997b) and two sets of water legislation, namely, the Water
Services Act (108 of 1997) (Anon 1997) and the National Water Act (36 of 1998) (Anon
1998). The process is described in several earlier papers (Ashton & Seetal, 2002; Ashwin
R Seetal, 2002; Ashwin R Seetal, 2004; Ashwin R Seetal & Gavin Quibell, 2003a;
Roland Schultze et al , 2004). The WAR programme is located within this broader water
sector reform process.

1.

Senior Manager, Water Allocation, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Pretoria, Republic
of South Africa.