MEL Mid-term Review report for the Table Mountain Water Source Area Partnership project

This internal mid-term review (MTR) report evaluates the 'Table Mountain Water Source Area Partnership: Protecting critical groundwater' project, funded by the Danish Embassy and managed by WWF South Africa. The project aims to establish effective joint management systems for groundwater in the Table Mountain Strategic Water Source Area (TM-SWSA) by 2022 through a multi-layered Theory of Change involving groundwater monitoring, awareness raising, and governance. The MTR, conducted in late 2021, identifies successes in awareness raising and the establishment of a multi-stakeholder partnership, while highlighting challenges related to COVID-19, data accessibility, and the complexities of operating within an unequal urban environment.

• The project successfully raised groundwater awareness across diverse societal levels, including schools, faith institutions, households, NGOs, and the City of Cape Town, despite COVID-19 disruptions. Specific achievements include Greenpop engaging 15 schools and reaching approximately 1,500–2,000 learners, and Green Anglicans engaging 22 'water disciples' and distributing groundwater material to a mailing list of 14,000 people across southern Africa.
• The Table Mountain Water Source Area (TM-WSA) Partnership has been established as a functional multi-stakeholder forum. Its Memorandum of Understanding was signed by nine parties, including representatives from the private sector, a foreign embassy, academic institutions, an NGO, and two spheres of government. The National Department of Water and Sanitation provided the chair for the steering committee.
• Significant project management and design challenges were identified, including a five-month delay in recruiting the project manager and a strategic omission of water quality monitoring, which limited both geohydrological data and public awareness efforts. Additionally, the project failed to implement the planned on-the-ground project for the business sector.
• The project faced systemic inhibitors regarding data access and public perception. Accessing groundwater data from private companies, the province, the City of Cape Town, and the Department of Water and Sanitation remained a major obstacle. Furthermore, groundwater is widely perceived as a private resource rather than a shared public good, and it remains largely 'invisible' to society.
• Implementation was heavily influenced by the socio-economic disparities of Cape Town. The intersection of geohydrology and private property ownership led to a focus on monitoring in privileged, formerly white suburbs, raising questions about the project's approach to less resourced communities and the need to address intersectionality regarding race, gender, power, and income.
• The long-term sustainability of the TM-WSA Partnership is uncertain because ownership has not been fully established and the need for the partnership's existence has not been answered with conviction. This uncertainty extends to the future resourcing of the database and baseline monitoring.

APA

Wilson, J., Soal, S., & Burt, J. (2022). MEL Mid-term Review report for the Table Mountain Water Source Area Partnership project. WWF South Africa. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/8_annexure_8_appendix_b_mel_mid_term_review_2022.pdf

Chicago

Wilson, Jessica, Sue Soal, and Jane Burt. MEL Mid-term Review report for the Table Mountain Water Source Area Partnership project. WWF South Africa, 2022. https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/8_annexure_8_appendix_b_mel_mid_term_review_2022.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Wilson |first1=Jessica |last2=Soal |first2=Sue |last3=Burt |first3=Jane |title=MEL Mid-term Review report for the Table Mountain Water Source Area Partnership project |publisher=WWF South Africa |date=January 2022 |url=https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/8_annexure_8_appendix_b_mel_mid_term_review_2022.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{wilson2022mel, author = {Wilson, Jessica and Soal, Sue and Burt, Jane}, title = {{MEL Mid-term Review report for the Table Mountain Water Source Area Partnership project}}, institution = {WWF South Africa}, year = {2022}, month = jan, url = {https://wwfafrica.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/8_annexure_8_appendix_b_mel_mid_term_review_2022.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }