ABSTRACT
This chapter examines specific challenges to river basin management using examples from southern Africa in general, and South Africa specifically. It is argued that southern African rivers are characterised by three significant factors: flood pulse, conversion of rainfall to runoff, and the impact of inter-basin transfers and dams. If the flood pulse is a critical driver of aquatic ecosystems in southern Africa, then the conversion of rainfall to runoff lies at the root of this phenomenon. Watersheds are the creation of natural processes over geological timescales in which major evolutionary adaptations occur. Cognizant of space limitations, the sewage dilemma arising from the fact that Johannesburg is upstream of all major drinking water storage dams, lies in an understanding of the risks associated with microcystin. Viewed in its totality, there is a strong case to be made that South African rivers are a classic example of the transition from the relatively steady-state Holocene to the unknown variability of the Anthropocene.
