Indigenous knowledge perspectives on water management and its challenges in South Africa

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge is defined as the unique, traditional, local knowledge existing within, and developed around the specific conditions of women and men indigenous to a geographic area (Greiner, 1998). The knowledge is normally embedded in the community and is unique to a given culture, location, or society (De Guchteneire, Krukkert, & von Liebenstein, 1999). Indigenous knowledge is not an artifact, that can be simply preserved, but a record of what has been lost to the seemingly inevitable march of Western science; therefore, there are now calls for the inclusion of local voices and priorities, and promises of empowerment through ownership of the process (Briggs & Sharp, 2004; Jupp, Ali, & Barahona, 2010). Indigenous knowledge is increasingly discussed by all as a commodity, something of value, something that can be value-added, something that can be exchanged, traded, appropriated, preserved, and something that can be excavated and mined (Appleby, 2004). Indigenous knowledge is now playing a huge role in the preservation of natural resources such as land and water. Knowledge of the environment is being lost in communities around the world, and there is an urgent need to conserve this knowledge to help develop mechanisms to protect the earth’s biological diversity (Battiste, 2005). Incorporating indigenous knowledge into climate change policies can lead to the development of effective adaptation strategies that are cost-effective, participatory, and sustainable (Ajani, 2013). Countries such as South Africa are facing huge challenges of access to water and water scarcity. Some of the answers lie in the conservation of water resources such as springs and wetlands that have seen decades of destruction. There are estimates that between 35% and 60% of wetlands in South Africa are already lost or severely degraded, while more than 50% have been lost, and of those that remain, 33% are in poor ecological condition (Water and Sanitation Master Plan, 2018). This chapter gives an outline of the history of water resources management in South Africa, including how indigenous communities lost access to the resource. This is followed by an exploration of pockets of indigenous knowledge systems in water management in South Africa, including the challenges faced by communities in efforts to participate in the preservation of the resource, which is becoming more and more scarce as the climate change threat increases. The chapter concludes with some recommendations that South Africa can adopt to improve the role of indigenous knowledge in water management.