This presentation provides an overview of a project undertaken by EMG and the South African Water Caucus, whereby water activists monitored aspects of the South African National Water Resources Strategy 2 (NWRS2)

1. Citizen monitoring of South
Africa’s second National Water
Resources Strategy (NWRS2)
WRC Project 2313 Overview | 9 November 2016
JESSICA WILSON

2. In situ “experiment” of knowledge-generation, learning, action and
reflection by (and with) the active citizens and organisations who can use it
to strengthen the implementation of the NWRS2 and other water policy, in
particular public interest aspects such as:
WHAT IS THIS PROJECT?
•Equitable access to water
•Protection of ecosystems, including rivers
•Transformation of society

3. ACTION RESEARCH LEARNERS
Western Cape
•Thabo Lusithi
•Manelisi James
ACTION RESEARCH LEARNERS
Vaal
•Samson Mokoena
•Mduduzi Tshabalala
•Thandi Ngcanga
PROJECT TEAM

4. ACTION RESEARCH LEARNERS
Eastern Cape
•Sithembele Tempi
•Soso Mjacu
PROJECT TEAM
ACTION RESEARCH LEARNERS
Mpumalanga
•December Ndhlovu
•Dr Alex Mashile
•Patricia Mdluli

5. CORE TEAM
•Heila Lotz-Sisitka, RU ELRC
•Jane Burt, Independent
•Jessica Wilson, EMG
•Samson Mokoena, VEJA
•Taryn Pereira, EMG
•Thabang Ngcozela, EMG
•Thabo Lusithi, EMG
•Victor Munnik, Independent
PROJECT TEAM
ANCHOR ORGANISATIONS
•Geasphere: Philip Owen
•Zingisa: S. Tempi & Joe Nkopo
•VEJA: Samson Mokoena
•EMG: Thabo Lusithi
STUDENTS
•Londeka Mahlanza
•Jane Burt

6. • Network, social movement,
or living organism…
• Deep values and principles
• Reframing humans’ relationship
with water
• Long history of engagement
SITUATED IN SA WATER CAUCUS

7. • Changing Practice course for
10 water activists
• Emancipatory, transformative and
ecologically sensitive
• Starting with what people know
• Builds on action research
approach of EMG
• Builds from Rhodes University ELRC
social learning courses
• Accredited by Rhodes University
SOCIAL LEARNING APPROACH

8. Research design:
Learning and action through
a spiral of forms

9. Core team:
reflection and
analysis
Water
sector
Citizen
monitoring
guidelines
Changing
practice
course
Change project
Case study
Action plans, incl.
exchange visits
Social
learners
(individuals)
Meetings
with DWS,
Municipality,
CMF
Meetings with
DWS and
municipalities
Public
discourse
Contextualised
case studies
SAWC
Provincial
water
caucus
Anchor
organisation
Reports to WRC,
articles &
academic papers

10. CAPE TOWN
JOHANNESBURG
PRETORIA
PORT ELIZABETH
DUNOON
VAAL
MARIEPSKOP
PEELTON
& QUZINI
Case study sites
www.emg.org.za

11. CASE STUDIES
THEME PLACE KEY QUESTIONS
Water demand management
and conservation in the
context of climate change
Dunoon, Cape Town,
Western Cape
What is the state of installation
of devices in Dunoon and
what are the impacts
emerging as a result?
Plantations,
ecosystems and water
Moholoholo (Mariepskop),
Mpumalanga
What is the impact of large
scale plantations on
downstream flow, ecosystem
services* and land claims in
the Moholoholo catchment?
* Ecosystem services focus on
plants and sacred pools used
by traditional healers

12. CASE STUDIES
THEME PLACE KEY QUESTIONS
Civil society monitoring of
water quality
Vaal, Gauteng How do we enable spiritual
water users to participate in
the CMFs in the Vaal?
What are the river access
problems, and where are the
sites that the spiritual and
traditional water users are
using?

13. • Role and form of civil society
• Participatory democracy in the water sector
• Learning in practice and cognitive justice
• NWRS2 implementation and policy cycle
• Building a common humanity and solidarity
FINDINGS AT MULTIPLE LEVELS

14. FINDINGS AT MULTIPLE LEVELS
• Each person active in the project
• Case study booklets
• Citizen-monitoring guidelines (draft)
• Final WRC report (draft)
• Solidarity paper
• ALARA paper
• Water wheel article
• Numerous talks and presentations
• Other articles still to come…

15. Thank you for listening,
and for thinking about how you
can build justice, democracy and
ecological integrity in the water sector

16. Draft citizen monitoring guidelines:
What do local activists need and how can they
support and be supported by DWS to monitor the
implementation of NWRS2 and other water policies
WRC2313 Deliverable 4 | 5 August 2015
JESSICA WILSON AND VICTOR MUNNIK
(with lots of help from others)

17. WHO ARE THESE GUIDELINES FOR?
• Activists as individuals and groups e.g. members of SAWC, water
user associations, CFMs, participants in IDP processes, etc.
• Government officials who work with activists and the public, to improve
their understanding of engaging with civil society
•Currently seeking input and comments to strengthen
the guidelines

18. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘MONITORING’?
• Observing and intervening in the full policy cycle, including agenda
setting, institutions and implementation
We monitor against:
1.Our key principles and core values
2.Government promises
3.Four key issues (of this project) – from the ground up

19. WHAT DO WE MEAN BY ‘MONITORING’?
• Monitoring means testing against a value based approach from our own
world view and perspective. It means monitoring against the promises
made in policy documents and constitution and pronouncements of
politicians (including Councillors). It also means noticing and protesting
against things that are wrong and building alternatives for social justice
and ecological integrity.

20. HOW DO WE MONITOR NWRS2?
1. Identify your issue, organise locally, build a case
2. Monitoring policy and governance
3. Build the water and environmental justice movement

21. IDENTIFY YOUR ISSUE, ORGANISE LOCALLY, BUILD A CASE
1. Describe what is happening: what are the conditions in which people live,
what are they doing in relation to water? This develops the context.

22. IDENTIFY YOUR ISSUE, ORGANISE LOCALLY, BUILD A CASE
1. Describe what is happening: what are the conditions in which people live,
what are they doing in relation to water? This develops the context.
2. Identify the issues and challenges facing your community: prioritise which
one/s you will tackle first. You do this with your community by describing the
context back to them and pointing out things you notice. One way of thinking
about this is you are holding up a mirror to people so that they can see their
situation clearly and so identify issues and challenges together.

23. IDENTIFY YOUR ISSUE, ORGANISE LOCALLY, BUILD A CASE
1. Describe what is happening: what are the conditions in which people live,
what are they doing in relation to water? This develops the context.
2. Identify the issues and challenges facing your community: prioritise which
one/s you will tackle first. You do this with your community by describing the
context back to them and pointing out things you notice. One way of thinking
about this is you are holding up a mirror to people so that they can see their
situation clearly and so identify issues and challenges together.
3. Identify new possibilities: how and at what level can we bring about change?
This is also done collaboratively with the communities we live in or work with.

24. IDENTIFY YOUR ISSUE, ORGANISE LOCALLY, BUILD A CASE
1. Describe what is happening: what are the conditions in which people live,
what are they doing in relation to water? This develops the context.
2. Identify the issues and challenges facing your community: prioritise which
one/s you will tackle first. You do this with your community by describing the
context back to them and pointing out things you notice. One way of thinking
about this is you are holding up a mirror to people so that they can see their
situation clearly and so identify issues and challenges together.
3. Identify new possibilities: how and at what level can we bring about change?
This is also done collaboratively with the communities we live in or work with.
4. Implement the change: how do we work with others to bring about change?

25. IDENTIFY YOUR ISSUE, ORGANISE LOCALLY, BUILD A CASE
1. Describe what is happening: what are the conditions in which people live,
what are they doing in relation to water? This develops the context.
2. Identify the issues and challenges facing your community: prioritise which
one/s you will tackle first. You do this with your community by describing the
context back to them and pointing out things you notice. One way of thinking
about this is you are holding up a mirror to people so that they can see their
situation clearly and so identify issues and challenges together.
3. Identify new possibilities: how and at what level can we bring about change?
This is also done collaboratively with the communities we live in or work with.
4. Implement the change: how do we work with others to bring about change?
5. Reflect, review and consolidate: what have you done and learnt? Go back to
step 1.

26. EXAMPLES OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES:
Chairperson who calls and chairs meetings
STARTING AND RUNNING AN ORGANISATION

27. EXAMPLES OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES:
Chairperson who calls and chairs meetings
Secretary who keeps minutes of meetings and other documentation like
decisions and correspondence
STARTING AND RUNNING AN ORGANISATION

28. EXAMPLES OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES:
Chairperson who calls and chairs meetings
Secretary who keeps minutes of meetings and other documentation like
decisions and correspondence
Treasurer who makes sure that the use of all monies is documented and can be
explained
STARTING AND RUNNING AN ORGANISATION

29. EXAMPLES OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES:
Chairperson who calls and chairs meetings
Secretary who keeps minutes of meetings and other documentation like
decisions and correspondence
Treasurer who makes sure that the use of all monies is documented and can be
explained
Research coordinator who makes sure all members are well informed through
gathering, keeping and sharing information
STARTING AND RUNNING AN ORGANISATION

30. EXAMPLES OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES:
Campaigns coordinator who supports mobilisation and engagement
Media officer who builds and keep contact with community radio and the press,
and can turn the issues into stories that the media will carry (See box 4: on media
tips)
STARTING AND RUNNING AN ORGANISATION

31. EXAMPLES OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES:
Campaigns coordinator who supports mobilisation and engagement
Media officer who builds and keep contact with community radio and the press,
and can turn the issues into stories that the media will carry (See box 4: on media
tips)
Government liaison officer who builds relations with specific people in
government to get and give information, and to strengthen civil society
-government alliances
STARTING AND RUNNING AN ORGANISATION

32. EXAMPLES OF ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITES:
Campaigns coordinator who supports mobilisation and engagement
Media officer who builds and keep contact with community radio and the press,
and can turn the issues into stories that the media will carry (See box 4: on media
tips)
Government liaison officer who builds relations with specific people in
government to get and give information, and to strengthen civil society
-government alliances
Task team coordinators who lead on a specific issue within the organisation
STARTING AND RUNNING AN ORGANISATION

33. MONITORING POLICY AND GOVERNANCE
• If you want to work at a policy level, there are four main things you need
to learn about:
1. You need to know what a policy is and what it says
2. Remember policy is not only contained in policy documents and legislation
3. You need to understand what policy changes you want – work with others to
identify and articulate these
4. You need to identify the space to engage and participate. These could be
‘invited’ or ‘invented’ spaces

34. BUILDING THE WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE
MOVEMENT
• Why is this important?
• Transformation is an ongoing process. What parts of our society do we
still want to transform?
• Solidarity is the glue that keeps a social movement together.
• A social movement follows a ‘network’ logic without entrenched
hierarchies – keeping your own organisation strong, accountable and
transparent, keeps the movement strong, accountable and transparent
• People and organisations come together, ‘take form’ from within the
movement to achieve specific things – e/g/ coalition that led to VEJA’s
victory over AMSA
• Learning from SAWC (page 30)

35. Tips for activists:
•Use existing forums to talk to officials
•Get the Minister on your side
•Ally yourself with academics
•Remind officials that they are required to
include citizens in decision making
•Cultivate links with regional officials
•What other tips can you suggest?
WORKING WITH DWS

36. RESOURCES
• NGOs and their websites
(EMG, CER, Geasphere, Benchmarks,
groundWork, CDRA)
• WRC research reports
• Parliament and government websites
• Social learning modules
• Knowledge networks gathered through
your research