South Africa has committed to ensuring access to water and sanitation for all, as outlined in Sustainable Development Goal 6. Additionally, Chapter 2 of the Constitution of South Africa, 1996 recognises the right of access to sufficient water of adequate quality as being essential to a good quality of life. To give effect to this right, the Water Services Act, 1997 (Act 108 of 1997) mandates municipalities to provide water to communities within their respective jurisdictions. Despite this, many rural municipalities have difficulty supplying water services to all their residents due to infrastructure backlogs, weak revenue bases and the need to service a landscape characterised by dispersed dwellings. Consequently, many rural households across South Africa rely directly on natural springs for water supply.

Although springs are a crucial water resource for a significant number of households in rural communities across South Africa, the utilisation of groundwater in communal land systems in South Africa has not been researched extensively. To address this research gap, a multidisciplinary research team worked together to implement a Water Research Commission (WRC)-funded project in the Thukela and uMzimvubu River Catchments of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The two-year project focused on investigating innovative solutions to address water insecurity in rural areas.

In a collaborative project with Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife; the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development; the South African National Biodiversity Institute and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) worked alongside two rural communities in the Eastern Cape and KZN to understand the adaptive capacity of these groundwater-dependent rural communities to the impacts of climate change on spring water supply, through holistic catchment management. The project study area falls within two of South Africa’s Strategic Water Source Areas for surface water that are situated in the Drakensberg Mountain region.

Titled ‘Promoting the adaptive capacity of rural communities to climate change through holistic catchment management: a case study of groundwater dependent communities in two catchments’ and given the tag line “Spring 4 Life”, this collaborative project was undertaken working closely with selected communities in communal lands. The team aimed to review the available tools and mechanisms for the protection, rehabilitation, and utilisation of springs to understand the relevance of social-cultural behaviours, beliefs and perceptions that influence the dependence on and restoration of ecological infrastructure, and co-develop innovative strategies and frameworks to respond to climate-related changes in groundwater supply. 

As a water-scarce country, the role of groundwater has gained importance since being considered an undervalued resource that is now vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The springs in the areas under study are vulnerable due to siltation, the infestation of the catchments by invasive alien vegetation, contamination by household waste and livestock activities.

Both catchment communities consider the springs as their primary source of drinking water, in addition to providing cultural ecosystem services for spiritual and religious purposes.

A highlight of this project is that because communities view spring protection as an essential element to ensure water quality and safety, they have taken it upon themselves to implement spring protection measures, mostly with the support of non-governmental organisations. However, many of these actions are challenged with resource constraints and prove to be ineffective in guaranteeing good quality water. A framework has been co-produced with the communities to guide the governance of groundwater in the two study areas. Importantly, the framework emphasizes the need for the explicit recognition of springs in municipal Integrated Development Plan, coupled with setting aside budgets to improve spring management and protection to provide better access to clean water for rural communities.

The final project report, which will be published on the WRC website in due course, acknowledges that, although springs are widely used for household water in the research sites, attention still needs to be paid to administrative processes related to procedures to safeguard springs, monitor their quality, and establish community standards for their use. Participatory governance processes could assist in ensuring accountability by both government institutions and water resource users. A further study is needed to better understand other dynamics connected to the use of springs and their protection in a changing climate.

The project is aligned with the recent National Water Week that was held from 20 to 26 March 2023, under the theme ‘Accelerating Change’.