ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on water redistribution and reallocation associated with the implementation of the National Water Act (NWA). It considers the diversity of domestic water use, including for subsistence farming and small-scale irrigated agriculture. Economic ‘development’ values may be identified through the several goals of the NWA, particularly “facilitating social and economic development”. The chapter argues that the narrative of citizenship and rights to water, manifesting a value of ‘equitable access’, has been dominated, and undermined in practice, by a narrative of scarcity and the economic valuation of water use. It outlines three distinct narratives encountered among water users and the institutions through which water use is governed: scarcity, participation, and rights. South Africa is widely regarded as the first country in the world to have “promulgated national water legislation which uses water as a means to achieve societal transformation based on environmental and social justice”.
