The question of inclusion and representation in rural South Africa: challenging the concept of water user associations as a vehicle for transformation

Abstract

The promotion of local governance and the transfer of water management responsibilities to Water User Associations (WUAs) have been central in water reform processes throughout the world, including in the reforms that took place in post-apartheid South Africa. This paper reflects on the notions of inclusion and representation as put forward by the various actors involved in the establishment of a WUA in a tertiary catchment in the Thukela River Basin.The paper describes how the WUA in the study catchment came to be dominated by commercial farmers, despite the South African government's aim to redress the inequities of the past by the inclusion and representation of historically disadvantaged individuals. The authors argue that the notions of inclusion and representation as embedded in the concept of the WUA are highly contested and more aligned with the institutional settings familiar to the commercial farmers.The paper concludes that, unless the inherently political nature of the participatory process is recognized and the different institutional settings become part of the negotiation process of the 'why' and the 'how' of progressive collaboration at catchment level, the establishment of the WUA in the study catchment will not contribute to achieving the envisioned transformation.

Challenging pathways to safe water access in rural Uganda: From supply to demand-driven water governance

“…Like Uganda, insufficient sensitisation was also reported for Zimbabwe, Mali and Burkina Faso (Kujinga and Jonker 2006;Cherlet and Venot 2013). Referring to the transformation process in South Africa, Kemerink et al (2013) also observes that unless the inherently political nature of the participatory process is recognised and different institutional settings become part of the negotiation process of the 'why' and 'how', water user associations will not effectively contribute to achieving the envisioned transformations. It needs adequate sensitisation and preparation for local self-governance.…”

Reductionist and integrative research approaches to complex water security policy challenges

“…Budds and McGranahan, 2003;Zeitoun and McLaughlin, 2013;Zwarteveen and Boelens, 2014) may shed light that can serve to reform these structures. Other examples include the investigations that have served to shake the complacency of ministries and donor-created Water User Associations in South Africa (Kemerink et al, 2013), as well as those that have compelled the re-allocation of water to indigenous groups in Australia (e.g. Nikolakis and Grafton, 2014).…”

Unlocking the “Prisoner’s Dilemma” of Corporate Water Stewardship in South Africa—Exploring Corporate Power and Legitimacy of Engagement in Water Management and Governance

“…On the other hand, the massive "hydraulic bureaucracy" [49] under the Department of Water Affairs (DWA), transformed to the Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation in May 2014, has been too expensive to maintain and its portfolio too broad. The participatory governance model of Catchment Management Agencies (CMAs) and Catchment Management Forums (CMFs) and Water User Associations (WUAs) has not always suited the local conditions, as the organizations have suffered from lack of skills and capacity and have not been free from politics [50,51]. At the time of the study, the new government policy aimed at de-establishing the mostly dysfunctional WUAs and to reduce the number of CMAs from nineteen (out of which two had been operational) to nine [40].…”

“…As noted, the South African water laws and policies have set a sophisticated but complex and evidently dysfunctional system of multilevel, polycentric and multi-actor but still state-controlled water resources management and governance [39,48,50,51]. Unsurprisingly, alignment of the new stewardship initiatives with the pre-existing institutional frameworks was found to be low.…”

“…Informants involved in municipality level stewardship projects for example struggled with communities being represented by ward councilors, often political people advancing their own agendas, but on the other hand, they could not be dismissed because of their democratic mandate. In the agricultural sector, very few previously disadvantaged and marginalized people had capacity to engage in Water User Associations or CMAs (see also [50]), which should have been the primary forums for interaction.…”