Groundwater governance in South Africa: A status assessment

Abstract

Groundwater governance provisions and arrangements in South Africa were studied at national level and at local level for a highly productive aquifer, the Botleng Dolomite Aquifer. Technical, legal, institutional and operational governance provisions were found to be reasonable at the national level but weak with regards to cross-sector policy coordination. At the local level, basic technical provisions such as hydrogeological maps and aquifer delineation with classified typology are in place but other governance provisions such as institutional capacity, provisions to control groundwater abstraction and pollution, cross-sector policy coordination and the implementation of a groundwater management action plan are weak or non-existent. Adaptation measures to climate change are not yet fully considered in planning. Only at the national level a groundwater strategy and artificial-recharge strategy has been developed but awaits implementation. Most critical management measures are considered, namely:• The integration of the National Groundwater Strategy (NGS) into the various water-related strategies • Strengthening of the groundwater regulatory environment • Strengthening of the institutional capacity Keywords: groundwater, governance, dolomite, South Africa Background and methodology

A groundwater potential zone mapping approach for semi-arid environments using remote sensing (RS), geographic information system (GIS), and analytical hierarchical process (AHP) techniques: a case study of Buffalo catchment, Eastern Cape, South Africa

“…The exploitation of groundwater resources as an alternative has not been harnessed as a result of limited knowledge on its development (Cobbing 2014). Groundwater status and Responsible Editor: Biswajeet Pradhan development were relegated to private operations with limited restrictions (Pietersen et al 2012). As a result, vast numbers of groundwater and surface water researches have been carried out as a separate entity until the reform of the Water Act (Act 36. of 1998) which also depolarizes their disjunctive management (Tanner and Hughes 2015).…”

“…Information on groundwater distribution of groundwater is still poorly documented (Cobbing and de Wit 2018). Institutional framework and arrangement for data collection, private sector data handling, integrated developmental plans, and management strategy for groundwater resources are issues yet to be properly accounted for (Pietersen et al 2012). Till present, few aquifers have been assessed for groundwater potential.…”

An analysis of the challenges for groundwater governance during shale gas development in South Africa

“…Based on the outcome of framework and content analyses for setting policies (Pietersen et al, 2012), it appears that the necessary policies and legislation are in place for effective groundwater governance in South Africa. The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is in the process of developing regulations to control the water-related impacts from shale gas exploration and production.…”

Groundwater Governance in the Azores Archipelago (Portugal): Valuing and Protecting a Strategic Resource in Small Islands

“…The main principles of groundwater governance as listed by [22] are: integrated water resource management, comprising both quantitative and quality aspects, the need for co-governance with activities that impact the subsoil, vertical integration, from the national level to the local one, and the coordination with other economic activities. Despite few publications addressing groundwater governance in a specific country or region [24], several studies present groundwater governance state-of-art in worldwide locations, showing the significance of the concept [3,[25][26][27][28]. Even the broader study made in the framework of the so-called Groundwater Governance-A Global Framework for Action does not allow access to country-scale data) [24].…”