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South Africa faces a deep water crisis. In confronting the water crisis, it is imperative that we secure, protect and effectively manage the source of our water. South Africa has 22 Strategic Water Source Areas which, together, take up only 8% of our land, yet provide 50% of our surface run-off. These areas support the water needs of approximately 60% of our population and 67% of our national economic activity.

Despite their critical value, however, our water source areas are faced with multiple threats, including drought, land degradation stemming from cultivation, plantations and over-grazing as well as mining, urban development, alien invasive vegetation, climate change and fires. Currently, less than 16% of our Strategic Water Source Areas are under some level of formal protection in terms of the Protected Areas Act.

The workshop will include presentations by experts from the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), WWF-South Africa, South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) (provisionally), CapeNature and Institute of Marine & Environmental Law (IMEL).