The main argument of the book is that South Africa’s freshwater resources have declined to such an extent over the past three decades that it can be described as a predicament. Questionable water governance decisions and reactive water management practices have led to either no improvement or increased degradation of freshwater resources. An overall lack of service delivery exists across the country in various contexts which have contributed to further water and social decline. South Africa currently finds itself in a water predicament where one region has achieved “day zero”, intermittent water supply in major metropolitan areas with dams being above 100% due to delipidated infrastructure, lack of water service delivery have become the norm in both urban and rural settlements, across the country, and lastly, continued and widespread water degradation causing some water resources to become unusable for certain water sectors due to being of an unacceptable standard. The main aim of the book is to provide an inter-disciplinary evaluation of South Africa’s current water predicament in terms of intermittent water supply, continued water degradation as well as questionable water governance and water management decisions to ultimately prioritize the major water crises and provide suitable recommendations to transform the current predicament into main problems which can be solved and/or addressed. The objectives of the book are therefore as follows. Firstly, to provide suitable background related to integrated water resource management and water services from a global and South African perspective to illustrate the necessity of good water management practice and water service delivery. The book provides an evaluation of South Africa’s current state and continued deterioration of freshwater resources with focus specifically placed on the decline of informed water management and actions, continued lack of water service delivery, and the progressive decline of water quality across the country. The book also focuses on the establishment of the main factors which require urgent attention and how to address these to limit continued decline.  In conclusion, an evaluation and overall synthesis focused on the transformation of the predicament into problems which as per definition can be solved, is provided. The main identified water problems are prioritized according to urgency and suitable recommendations, or actions are given in an attempt to assist in transforming the country’s current complex water predicament into “simpler” water problems which can be addressed and solved. Political will as well as the collaboration with researchers, stakeholders, non-governmental organization and cooperation of civil society will be required. With no political will, reactive water management and poor water governance will persist and drive the country’s already fragile and scarce water resources and infrastructure to a possible collapse if no major actions or appropriate interventions are implemented to avoid water insecurity. weiterlesen