ID: 946

South Africa's Strategic Water Source Areas Program

South Africa’s Strategic Water Source Areas (SWSA) produce over 50% of the surface water available in the country. These areas are critical given that South Africa is one of the 30 most water scarce countries in the world. WWF is mobilizing Water Source Partnerships: community-public-private partnerships to bring together the interests, actions and mandates of those connected to a local water source area. Promoting the protection of water source areas in policy and long-term planning. WWF already have projects on the go in ten of the 22 water source areas. One project has cleared more than 900 hectares of alien trees in the Outeniqua mountains near George, creating over 28,000 days of local employment and releasing more than 1 billion litres annually back into the natural water system. Work has been carried out with the Department of Water and Sanitation, the Water Research Commission (WRC), the CSIR and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) to ensure that the strategic importance of South Africa’s water source areas has been recognized in the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan. Water Source Partnerships aim to address the root cause of our water crisis: the crisis of water governance. We need more effective stewardship of water source areas to protect the integrity of this critical ecological infrastructure and to ensure water and jobs downstream. To reduce risks to the quantity and quality of water yields, it is essential to improve the management of water and land. This means improving the management practice of all the activities that happen here: forestry, agriculture, mining and settlements. As well as driving the clearing of invasive alien species and replanting of waterwise indigenous species. Effective partnerships are needed to mobilize the different mandates, common interests and intent of actors in critical catchments and WWF is doing this with multiple corporate, NGO and local government partners in each Water Source Area that WWF is working in.

Planned actions

Management of land/water

Species management

Education or awareness-raising