| dc.description.abstract | Monitoring of groundwater levels provides a basis for assessing the availability of water
in aquifers, thereby informing the decisions on abstraction and uses of such water for
various purposes. It provides an understanding of anthropogenic and non-anthropogenic
influences on aquifer, on temporal and spatial dimensions
In South Africa and on a global scale, the lack of adequate implementation plan for the
monitoring of groundwater levels has resulted in the lack of data and information on
groundwater levels. Resultantly, preventing managers from making practical and
appropriate decisions on how groundwater needs to be governed. Currently, there is a
growing acknowledgement that adequate monitoring of groundwater levels depends on
an implementation plan whereby citizens or local communities are considered crucial
partners in generating data and information on groundwater levels. An important
contribution of the thesis is the method used is aimed at understanding the current
challenges in terms of the implementation of the monitoring of groundwater levels within
the institutional setting and to what extent can citizen science lead to the planning of a
more collaborative plan for monitoring of groundwater levels.
Adopting of the Integrated Water Resource Management framework, in South Africa,
further position citizens (community) at the crux of effective monitoring of groundwater
levels. This is important to ensuring that groundwater is governed through a bottom-up
approach, whereby groundwater resource is managed at local level where groundwater
resides, is used and can be best managed. However, this position citizens as ‘citizen
scientist” and further demand that they participate collaboratively with other stakeholders
such as the Department of Water and Sanitation, Municipalities, Consultants amongst
others.
In effect, an adequate implementation plan needs to be developed based on the
understanding of the involvement of citizens in science, in addition to collaboration
between citizens and institutions responsible for the monitoring of groundwater levels.
Such implementation plan must clearly defined roles and responsibilities based on the
contextual institutional framework. Thus, the study making use of an exploratory
qualitative approach, established current practices of monitoring of groundwater levels
based on the institutional arrangement and determined current gaps and barriers in term
of the implementation of monitoring of groundwater levels. Furthermore, the study
and collective management to develop a collaborative action plan for the monitoring of
groundwater levels. These drivers were identified as fundamental to collaboration in
groundwater resource management, good groundwater governance and within the
context of the Integrated Water Resource Management that drive management of
groundwater in South Africa.
The study identified the lack of adequate participation and collaboration between
institutions responsible for the monitoring of groundwater levels. It further revealed that
the current institutional setting contrast the bottom-up approach as anticipated under the
Integrated Water Resource Management framework. In term of implementation of the
monitoring of groundwater levels, challenges identified included the complexity of
hydrogeological setting, limited scientific knowledge of the aquifers in West Coast, lack
of adequate capacity, vandalism, poor access, lack of adequate funding and poor
community participation. Currently, these challenges are aggravated as a result of the
lack of collaboration as well as institutional voids due to inactive Catchment
Management Agencies.
Citizen Science have been acknowledge in hydrological monitoring, as an effective
means of project design, data collection, verification of data, community engagement
and collaboration between citizen and relevant institutions. Thus, the study
recommended a citizen science approach for developing a collaborative monitoring of
groundwater levels plan, as it doesn’t not only aligns with the Integrated Water Resource
Management Framework but aligns and strengthens the bottom-up approach that is
fundamental to Integrated Water Resource Management and good governance of
groundwater resources.
Based on the amalgamation of the citizen science framework with collaborative drivers, a
collaborative action plan was developed. The plan outlined and defined roles and
responsibilities for successful collaboration. The recommendations included the need for
the development of the Catchment Management Agencies to enable the integration of
stakeholders in the management of groundwater resource. Additionally, there is a need
to develop a community of knowledge and the integration of Water Users into
groundwater resource management. | en_US |
