Groundwater Management Handbook: A Toolkit for Local Municipalities

Abstract

Groundwater is a critical component of South Africa’s water security, particularly for rural settlements, small towns, drought-prone municipalities and areas where surface-water schemes are costly, unreliable or unavailable. Despite this importance, groundwater is still too often treated as an emergency or secondary source rather than as a strategic municipal asset. This has contributed to underinvestment in hydrogeological skills, monitoring, data management, operation and maintenance, aquifer protection and long-term planning. The Groundwater Management Handbook responds to this challenge by providing municipalities with a practical toolkit to plan, develop, operate, protect, and govern groundwater resources in a more coordinated and sustainable way.

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