Guidelines for catchment management strategies : towards equity, efficiency and sustainability in water resources management

In South Africa, a vital component of integrated water resources management is the progressive devolution of responsibility and authority over water resources to catchment management agencies. In terms of the National Water Resources Strategy, 19 WMAs have been delineated, with the establishment of catchment management agencies as an important component in the institutional arrangements. The main aim of setting up catchment management agencies is to decentralize responsibility for managing water resources so that water users and the public at large can play their part. These guidelines provide a description of the overall framework. Much effort has been put in to capture all the water resources processes and aspects into one document. They are not a set of rigid prescriptions and recipes. New issues will arise as the agencies prepare their strategies and variability and extremes might make adaptations necessary. They provide an overview of IWRM in South Africa and how it can be implemented at the level of the water management area; the contents and level of detail needed in a CMS; support and understanding of the processes for developing the CMS (sequence, potential time frames and potential resource requirements); and an overview of the approval process (the criteria, process and time frames).
The strategy is also supposed to address the water use requirements covered in other planning instruments such as Integrated Development Plans and Water Services Development Plans, which local Authorities are obliged to prepare, as well as the Provincial Growth and Development Strategies prepared by provincial Governments.