ABSTRACT
Best practices can be seen as guiding the local actions of groundwater utilization and management. To be efficient and effective, these best practices need to be applied in a broader environment and suitable framework for integrated water, sanitation and hygiene delivery. Logically, the IWRM approach should achieve this integration, but both sanitation and sustainable groundwater resource utilization do not yet fit comfortably under this approach. In urban water management the various elements, including water supply, flood protection and drainage, wastewater treatment and disposal, and maintenance of water-based amenities are already coming together and approaching sustainable service delivery. Still to find its place in this integration is the relatively new function of protecting receiving waters as recreational, aesthetic, environmental and ecological amenity. The South African water quality management policy is used here as example of how this can be achieved and how groundwater quality management can be included, also in rural and peri-urban areas. At least the elements of an overall framework for integrated water, sanitation and hygiene delivery are discussed below under the following headings:
• Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM); • Groundwater in IWRM; • Integrated Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Delivery; • Integrated service delivery in the urban environment; • Integrated service delivery in the rural environment; • A comprehensive approach to facilitate groundwater resource protection; • Support for local actions.
