The Status of Groundwater Policy and Governance in South Africa: Role of Local Partnerships to support Local Groundwater Resource Management

OneWorld was commissioned by World Wildlife Fund South Africa (WWF SA) and is intended to support and further facilitate the WWF SA’s work towards sustainable groundwater governance of the Table Mountain Strategic Water Source Area (TMSWSA). WWF SA is in the process of establishing a Community-Public-Private Partnership referred to as the Table Mountain Strategic Water Partnership (hereby referred to as the ‘Partnership’).

The Partnership aims to improve our understanding of groundwater and fast track the monitoring and sustainable management of it as a resource, to ensure water resources can continue to support people and the ecosystem in and around the TMSWSA.

As such, it is envisioned that the Partnership will: support the mandated government bodies in enacting their roles and mandates; mobilize the public/local communities and the private sector; bring together government, the private sector, and local communities; improve the sharing of data, information, and research outputs.; and develop and strengthen groundwater governance in the Strategic Water Source Area and contribute to ensuring that groundwater is well understood, monitored, and regulated as a critical water resource.

The objective of the project was to undertake a reconnaissance of existing groundwater-related policy, legal frameworks and strategies related to groundwater governance in South Africa, and provide a summary of interlinkages, including mapping of the relevant mandated institutions together with their functions/responsibilities related to groundwater management. A summary of key challenges, gaps, and any overlaps was also provided, with a particular lens of possible entry points for the proposed Table Mountain Strategic Water Source Area (TMSWSA) Partnership.

OneWorld identified framework(s) to implement groundwater governance and groundwater resource management at a local government level which the TMSWSA Partnership could take forward. This included consideration of essential partners (mandated institutions and beyond) focusing on groundwater in Cape Town. This led to a summary of recommendations, whereafter a set of international case study examples was compiled.