ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on specific ways in which the distribution of water resources in southern and eastern Africa at different scales affects development prospects and provides challenges to policy-makers concerned with economic and human development. Water is unique among natural resources in that its consumption, both directly and indirectly, in the production of food, is fundamental to life. Water is also used to generate electricity, hydroelectric power and in the manufacture of many of the products that people use. Domestic uses of water include household needs as well as municipal and commercial activities. The chapter also focuses on Hydropolitics of transboundary watercourses. Assessment of renewable water resources and, hence, the water stress index presumes equitable sharing of renewable water resources among riparian nations that share a transboundary watercourse. In 1998, the South African government introduced new legislation, embodied in the National Water Act that specifies the development, use and management of water resources in South Africa.
