Water institutional reforms in South Africa

Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gerhard R. Backeberg

A comprehensive program of water institutional reforms has been implemented in South Africa since 1994. These reforms followed some major reform on the political and economic fronts. The institutional changes that occurred in the water sector covered the policy legal, and organizational dimensions of water allocation and management and affected all water sub-sectors including environmental allocations. The reform process has culminated in a new national water policy, a national water act and a national water resources strategy. Substantial organizational changes have also occurred with a focus on management decentralization, user participation and license-based allocation of water. This paper aims to provide an overview of these and other changes, especially from the perspective of irrigation and agriculture. It also attempts to explain the emergence and implementation of the water institutional reforms process in the light of the results reported in recent literature on water institutional reforms. The paper provides evidence for the role of transaction cost and political economy considerations as well as the use of reform design and implementation principles such as institutional sequencing and reform timing.

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (11) ◽  
pp. 141-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Marjanovic ◽  
M. Miloradov

The new National water policy will change the way water quality is managed in South Africa. The paper considers the water policy and the repercussions it will have for water quality monitoring in South Africa. Using the systems approach the paper discusses an integrated water quality monitoring system for ambient water quality and point and non point sources of aquatic pollution. The proposed methodology makes possible continuos assessment of water quality in an efficient manner so as to support water quality management in South Africa.


2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. O. Schreiner ◽  
R. C. van Ballegooyen ◽  
W. Osman

In the last decade, seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) has come to be seen by policy-makers as a novel technology that will significantly advance water security in South African coastal regions. Water purveyors, from the private sector, local/district municipalities and provincial authorities, are undertaking studies to explore the feasibility of SWRO to meet growing demand and relieve mounting pressure on current bulk water supply infrastructure. With this in mind, it is suggested that national strategic planning should be introduced to present the opportunities and constraints of the desalination option within the national water and energy policy. In absence of this, piece-meal decisions will be made at local authority levels and the construction of SWRO plants will be determined by regional circumstances (e.g. drought) as opposed to national water policy agenda. This paper explores the value of such a strategy by considering the drivers of SWRO in South Africa, the risk of unplanned large-scale SWRO implementation (with a focus on environmental impacts) and the initial steps that could be taken toward a Strategic Environmental Assessment for SWRO in South Africa.


Water Policy ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piet Heyns

After years of colonial rule and a long struggle to end external administration, Namibia became independent in 1990. The realization of political reform within a modern democratic framework has called for wide-ranging reforms in all sectors of the economy to which the water sector is not an exception. Institutional reforms in the water sector were undertaken with an overall aim of introducing integrated water resources management as a durable solution to the water challenges of the arid environment prevailing in Namibia. The reforms included the development of a new national water policy, the preparation of draft legislation, and new organizational changes to develop, manage and regulate activities in the water sector. Although institutional reforms in the water sector are necessary to meet the demands of a new nation, they cannot succeed without the required level of skill and capacity both within and outside water administration. While it is relatively easier to formulate new policies, promulgate legislation and create new organizations, it is very difficult for an emerging country to develop quickly the human capacity necessary to handle the reforms, especially when inadequate funding constraints create a conflict between resource development and capacity building.


2014 ◽  
pp. 30-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Grigoryev ◽  
E. Buryak ◽  
A. Golyashev

The Ukrainian socio-economic crisis has been developing for years and resulted in the open socio-political turmoil and armed conflict. The Ukrainian population didn’t meet objectives of the post-Soviet transformation, and people were disillusioned for years, losing trust in the state and the Future. The role of workers’ remittances in the Ukrainian economy is underestimated, since the personal consumption and stability depend strongly on them. Social inequality, oligarchic control of key national assets contributed to instability as well as regional disparity, aggravated by identity differences. Economic growth is slow due to a long-term underinvestment, and prospects of improvement are dependent on some difficult institutional reforms, macro stability, open external markets and the elites’ consensus. Recovering after socio-economic and political crisis will need not merely time, but also governance quality improvement, institutions reform, the investment climate revival - that can be attributed as the second transformation in Ukraine.


1991 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 333-362 ◽  
Author(s):  
MADELEINE LY-TIO-FANE

SUMMARY The recent extensive literature on exploration and the resulting scientific advances has failed to highlight the contribution of Austrian enterprise to the study of natural history. The leading role of Joseph II among the neutral powers which assumed the carrying trade of the belligerents during the American War of Independence, furthered the development of collections for the Schönbrunn Park and Gardens which had been set up on scientific principles by his parents. On the conclusion of peace, Joseph entrusted to Professor Maerter a world-encompassing mission in the course of which the Chief Gardener Franz Boos and his assistant Georg Scholl travelled to South Africa to collect plants and animals. Boos pursued the mission to Isle de France and Bourbon (Mauritius and Reunion), conveyed by the then unknown Nicolas Baudin. He worked at the Jardin du Roi, Pamplemousses, with Nicolas Cere, or at Palma with Joseph Francois Charpentier de Cossigny. The linkage of Austrian and French horticultural expertise created a situation fraught with opportunities which were to lead Baudin to the forefront of exploration and scientific research as the century closed in the upheaval of the Revolutionary Wars.


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