Water Management And Planning In A
Semi-arid Country: The South African Situation
Author(s)
J. Visser & S.-A. Verhoog
Abstract
South Africa is a semi-arid country in which the average rainfall is well below
the world average of about 860 mm per year. Stream flow in South African
rivers is at a relatively low level for most of the time, a feature that limits the
proportion of stream flow that can be relied upon to be available for use. As a
result of historical imbalances of the past, the availability of water was to a large
extent determined by the prosperity and race of the water user. This resulted in a
situation where a small percentage of the population controlled the bulk of the
industrial and agricultural water in the country. The National Water Act,
promulgated in 1998, saw the beginning of a new era with a new water resource
management policy. The following principles are inherent to the new policy:
Equitable use of resources, efficient and optimal use of the resource and
sustainable use of the resource. A water use licensing system was introduced and
enforced by the National Water Act. One of the objectives of this said Act is to
redress the imbalances of the past through a more transparent and justifiable
process. The paper will attempt to describe the licensing procedure and describe
how social, economical and ecological aspects are influencing the
decision-making processes in the management of water resources in South
Africa.
Keywords: arid country, historical imbalances, redress, equitable access,
sustainability, resource protection, beneficial use, public interest.
1 Introduction
South Africa is largely a semi-arid country with a varied climate. A gradual
change in climatic conditions occurs from the wet and sub-humid eastern regions
to the arid western coastal belt along the Atlantic Ocean. The average annual
Keywords
arid country, historical imbalances, redress, equitable access,
sustainability, resource protection, beneficial use, public interest.
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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