National Water Security (NWSF) for South Africa (extended).

This National Water Security (NWSF) for South Africa is part of a series of interventions needed to achieve the National Development Plan: Vision 2030 (NDP) goals, whose overall strategic objectives are to eradicate poverty, reduce inequality, and address unemployment. The basis of the NWSF is the constitutional imperative relating to water, which gives every person a fundamental right to an environment that is not harmful to human well-being, and requires the environment to be protected for the benefit of the present and future generations. The concept of water security has become more comprehensive, broadening from an initial focus on quantity and availability of water for human uses to include water quality, human health, and ecological concerns. From a water security perspective, water resources should not be treated in isolation, as if independent of the food, climate, or energy security of individuals, communities, and the country. The framework is key to addressing the country’s water security challenges holistically and decisively, guiding the execution of roles and responsibilities and ensuring accountability. It will, among others (i) guide all water-related policies across the governance system in terms of short-medium-and long-term planning and support; (ii) strengthen implementation and ensure that it is managed at a level that allows for holistic oversight and fosters cross-departmental and sectoral integration; (iii) ensure national accountability linked to mandates across the governance system to address the challenge of department-specific mandates that impact on water and sanitation; (iv) provide cross-sectoral water security through full engagement of stakeholders at all levels.
The NWSF takes cognisance of the fact that, unlike other resources, water cannot be substituted with anything. It is finite and must be conserved and protected for future generations. The scope of the framework is to position the need for key interventions at short, medium, and long-term to enable an integrated and transdisciplinary approach to planning for water security, creating an enabling mechanism for implementation and clarifying roles and responsibilities. The framework segregates the various elements of implementation in terms of areas of focus and the respective roles and responsibilities, providing a platform for monitoring implementation. To this end, two key areas will drive the monitoring, namely (1) economic growth measured by GDP growth, contributed through water and associated activities; (2) reducing the inequality gap measured in terms of human development index (HDI) focusing on livelihoods locally through to national (bottom up) and reflective of past imbalances. The above must be viewed in terms of the three apex priorities of (1) reducing inequality, (2) eradicating poverty and (3) improved employment in line with the NDP’s vision and enabling milestones of universal access to clean running water in the homes as well as the commitments made through the SDGs.
The NWSF implementation is guided by ten focus areas that institutions and organizations involved in the National Development Plan (NDP) must adhere to. These areas provide a structured approach to addressing national water security across sectors, they are (1) Narrowing the Inequality Gap: evaluate post-1994 reforms in reducing water-related inequalities using a modified development index; (2) Water Infrastructure and Finance: ensure sustainability by assessing financial flows and developing innovative funding models; (3) Diversifying Water Sources: integrate non-traditional water sources into water security planning from a systems perspective; (4) Water Research, Monitoring and Information: establish a centralized national water intelligence facility for data coordination and accessibility; (5) Nexus Aspects of Water Security: link water security to energy, food, and land within sustainable development goals and climate change adaptation; (6) Ecological Infrastructure: recognize and measure the socio-economic value of ecosystems and integrate them into water management; (7) Water and Spatial Planning: align water planning with the National Spatial Development Framework to ensure sustainable, equitable development; (8) Enabling Planning for Water Security: establish key water institutions and streamline government functions to focus on national water security; (9) Managing Water Risks: strengthen resilience and disaster risk management in alignment with the National Disaster Management Framework; (10) Communication and Stakeholder Empowerment: develop a stakeholder engagement strategy to foster active community involvement in water security initiatives.