STOP TREADING WATER: WHAT CIVIL SOCIETY CAN DO TO GET WATER GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA BACK ON TRACK

The report identifies critical failures in South African water governance and provides recommendations for civil society to intervene and improve the management of water resources.

• The implementation of statutory tools under the National Water Act, 1998 (NWA), such as resource-directed measures and source-directed controls, has lagged significantly since 1998 due to overly complex strategies, lack of coordination between the DWA, DEA, and DMR, and insufficient capacity and stability within the Department of Water Affairs (DWA).
• Water use authorisations are plagued by a massive backlog of applications that exceed the DWA's processing capacity, leading to compromised decision-making and economic stagnation in sectors like mining between 2001 and 2008.
• The devolution of water resource management to local levels has failed; only two Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs)—the Breede Overberg CMA and the Inkomati CMA—have been established out of an envisaged 19, largely due to institutional inertia and fear within the Ministry and DWA regarding the transfer of power.
• Water service delivery has reached crisis proportions in many areas due to local government implementation failures, with the DWA noting that most municipalities are unable to provide services sustainably and effectively on their own.
• Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement (CME) is severely under-resourced, with the 'Blue Scorpions' unit lacking sufficient staff and seniority; for example, as of January 2012, the unit reportedly had only 14 officials to cover the entire country.
• The Water Tribunal suffers from procedural and substantive defects, including unacceptably long delays in appeals, a lack of clear rules for interim relief, and a tendency to exclude third-party standing if the DWA does not explicitly invite public participation.

APA

Centre for Environmental Rights (n.d.). STOP TREADING WATER: WHAT CIVIL SOCIETY CAN DO TO GET WATER GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA BACK ON TRACK. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Stop-Treading-Water.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Centre for Environmental Rights. STOP TREADING WATER: WHAT CIVIL SOCIETY CAN DO TO GET WATER GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA BACK ON TRACK. n.d. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Stop-Treading-Water.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Centre for Environmental Rights |title=STOP TREADING WATER: WHAT CIVIL SOCIETY CAN DO TO GET WATER GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA BACK ON TRACK |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Stop-Treading-Water.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centreforenvironmentalrightsndstop, author = {{Centre for Environmental Rights}}, title = {{STOP TREADING WATER: WHAT CIVIL SOCIETY CAN DO TO GET WATER GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA BACK ON TRACK}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Stop-Treading-Water.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }