Understanding land and water sector reforms in the context of smallholder irrigation and food security in the Limpopo River basin, South Africa: fieldwork report

This Report is intended to provide feedback regarding the fieldwork trip that I undertook in Limpopo Province from 5th-12th August 2016). The fieldwork was done in Bela Bela, Groblersdal, Molemole, and Tzaneen areas. This is a continuation of a project funded by the NRF Annual Grant for Y-rated Researchers in South Africa. The project in nearing completion and a substantial amount of data has already been gathered for analysis and write-up. It is anticipated that some of the results from this study will be presented at the Annual WATERNET Symposium in Gaborone, October 2016

Managing water supply systems using free-market economy approaches: a detailed review of the implications for developing countries

Decision makers in developing countries are often confronted by difficult choices regarding the selection and deployment of appropriate water supply governance regimes that sufficiently take into account national socio-economic and political realities. Indeed, scholars and practitioners alike continue to grapple with the need to create the optimum water supply and allocation decision-making space applicable to specific developing countries. In this paper, we review documented case studies from various parts of the world to explore the utility of free-market economics approaches in water supply governance. This is one of the major paradigms that have emerged in the face of enduring questions regarding how best to govern water supply systems in developing countries. In the paper, we postulate that increasing pressure on available natural resources may have already rendered obsolete some of the water supply governance regimes that have served human societies very well for many decades. Our main findings show that national and municipal water supply governance paradigms tend to change in tandem with emerging national development frameworks and priorities. While many developing countries have adopted water management and governance policy prescriptions from the international arena, national and local socio-economic and political realities ultimately determine what works and what does not work on the ground.We thus, conclude that the choice of what constitutes an appropriate water supply governance regime in context is never simple. Indeed, the majority of case studies reviewed in the paper tend to rely on a mix of market economics and developmental statism to make their water governance regimes more realistic and workable on the ground.

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

One of the key components essential to the productivity of small-scale farmers who secured farms through the land redistribution programme in South Africa is access to reliable sources of water for irrigation. In this study, we deployed a stakeholder-oriented qualitative research methodology to understand the extent to which land reform farming schemes in Bela-Bela and Greater Sekhukhune have been able to access water and use it to enhance their agricultural production. We were keen to identify and articulate the water-related challenges and missing ingredients for successful agricultural production on the new farming schemes. The study found that access to water for irrigated agriculture is not guaranteed for most of the emerging farmers and they do not have the finance needed to invest in sustainable water supply systems for irrigation. As a result, the majority of the farmers in our study sample have not been able to realize any meaningful agricultural production, with their farming schemes being either underutilized or not functioning at all. Other key challenges include lack of finance, high costs of electricity, and lack of farming knowledge among the emerging farmers. The paper concludes that there is need for key actors in the development sector to provide more substantive post–land transfer support and ensure better access to water for the emerging farmers. This will enhance the farmers’ chances of realizing more meaningful agricultural production while improving their livelihoods

Transboundary water cooperation: taking stock and looking forward

Peer Revie

Application of the Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) Approach in Water Resource Management Research: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Future Research Directions

Population growth, climate change, and conflicting demand by industry and agriculture are increasingly straining our planet’s water resources. In this light, there is a need to advance holistic approaches and objective tools which allow policymakers to better evaluate system-level properties and trade-offs of water resources. This chapter contributes to the expanding literature in this area by highlighting water resource management strategies based on the ecological network analysis (ENA) approach. This chapter overviews the theoretical underpinnings of the ENA approach and its application, limitations, and weaknesses for water resource management research. Furthermore, through the case study of the Heihe River Basin, this chapter demonstrates how to examine system-level properties and their trade-offs relevant to the resilience of water services. The ENA approach considers holistic trade-offs that may be used to evaluate alternative water recycling and saving scenarios. This approach can complement multiple criteria decision-making framework and scenario planning approaches and can be beneficial in developing new applicable water resource management strategies