ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on institutional reforms in the management of water resources in South Africa. It describes how water reforms in South Africa were formalised and why they were initiated, and explores some of the ground realities and challenges in the implementation of a water law hailed internationally as one of the best in recent times. The local management of water resources, as it has evolved to date, is first mapped out to illustrate the sequence of events and motives resulting in the decentralization of water management. Inequalities in land and water distribution in the country are closely linked to its history of European colonial rule and apartheid. The main triggers behind water reforms were not very different from those behind national political reforms, though with some specific implications. The post-apartheid democratic government was confronted with a situation in which majority of South Africans had been ousted from their lands and hence denied access to water for productive uses.
