Water Wheel Jan/Feb 2023: Water Policy

Abstract

Water, land and the law Writers such as Guelke & Shell (1992) have traced the South African history of water giving narratives of dispossession that have lasted for centuries. When the Dutch East India Company arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, they developed water laws to serve the interests of the white settlers, based on Roman-Dutch Law, a legal system developed in the Netherlands. Land and water resources were taken from Khoikhoi pastoralists and it became difficult for them to sustain themselves in a land in which access to limited water resources was necessary for survival. The settlers did not attempt to create a uniform policy for water use between the new arrivals, and native communities. Water use entitlements started to be officially allocated by the colonial government around the 1760s. When the British government took over in 1805, new laws were introduced. A key change, that still heavily impacts water management in South Africa today was the dissolution of state control of water for the riparian principle.

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