An integrated approach to the management of water quality in a developing South Africa

The majority of South Africans live in rapidly developing communities with inadequate or poorly functional services. Pollution from these developing communities has severe economic and health implications for downstream users and impacts on the natural functioning of river ecosystems. Water quality problems from developing communities arise where wastes produced in the community, reach the surface or groundwater resource, or where destruction of the riparian zone and river habitats occur. The key to sustainable management of pollution from developing communities lies in addressing the physical causes of water quality problems while the sustainability of these physical interventions rests on addressing the institutional and socio-economic factors contributing to the problem.