The deep waters of land reform: land, water and conservation area claims in Limpopo Province, Olifants Basin, South Africa

Abstract

Through investigating the reactions of commercial farmers to land and water reforms in the Trichardtsdal-Ofcolaco area, Limpopo Province, Olifants Basin, South Africa, from 1997 to 2006, it is shown that water claims are key to land redistribution processes, and that commercial farmers make strategic use of arguments for nature conservation and ecological stewardship to defend their claims to water. Given these observations, caution is warranted with respect to the implementation of land and water reforms as separate policy packages; it may be more effective to design water and conservation policies as an integral part of land reform programmes.

Defining, researching and struggling for water justice: some conceptual building blocks for research and action

“…Indeed, in arid and semiarid areas, wealth differences between farmers increasingly are as much or more a function of people's differential access to water as they are of differential access to land. Likewise, the dynamics of market-led land reforms are importantly governed by access to water (see Liebrand, Zwarteveen, Wester, & van Koppen, 2012). The question of how to fairly distribute material water access rights and political water decision-making rights therefore deserves attention.…”

Ensuring access to water for food production by emerging farmers in South Africa: What are the missing ingredients?

“…It is also characterised by poor infrastructure and lack of safe water supplies. Some 33% of the population still depend on natural water supply and 7% have no formal means of sanitation (Drimie et al, 2009;Magombeyi, 2013).…”

“…Among all these sectors, it is generally agreed that Figure 1. Location of the study sites (adapted from Greater Sekhukhune District Municipality, 2008) the well-established commercial farming sector accounts for the bulk of water abstractions (Magombeyi, 2013). By contrast, emerging small-scale irrigation farmers have insufficient water and some interventions are required to improve water access for this sector which is likely to grow further as more users enter the sector through land reform (Farolfi and Perret, 2002).…”

“…Closer analysis of the published literature shows that there have been very few studies done in South Africa that acknowledge the link between land and water even though this connection may seem self-evident. For instance Merrey et al (2009) demonstrated how monopoly and extreme inequity in ownership and access to water in the Olifants Catchment created artificial water scarcity for emerging farmers; Liebrand et al (2012) argue that in spite of its explicit focus on equity, the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998;RSA, 1998) did little to bring about a more just allocation and use of water and, as a result, access to both land and water in South Africa continues to be concentrated in the hands of a privileged few, and is highly skewed along racial lines. It is our contention that such studies enable analysts to get a better grasp of how emerging farmers may gain access and use water in practice to make their farms more productive.…”

Land, Water, and Gender Questions in South Africa: A Transformative Social Policy Perspective

“…The land–water nexus in rural South Africa is seldom discussed in political narratives of land reform and is conspicuously missing from the recent heated public debates sparked by the principle of “expropriation of land without compensation” (Marcatelli, 2018, p. 394). Disparities in access to (agricultural) water use are argued to be more pronounced than discrimination in access to land (Liebrand et al, 2012, p. 773; Movik, 2012, p. 17; Ncube, 2018, p. 1; Pienaar & Van der Schyff, 2007, p. 182; Woodhouse, 2012, p. 848). While the national Gini Coefficient stands at 0.68 (Statistics South Africa, 2017), disparities in direct agricultural water access and use stand at 0.95 (Liebrand et al, 2012, p. 774; Cullis & van Koppen, 2007 cited in Woodhouse, 2012, p. 848).…”