The Analysis of Key Hydropolitical Processes in the South African Case Study

This study has shown that increasing levels of insecurity often arise from basin closure. This was subsequently shown to be the situation in the South African case study, particularly in the Incomati River basin and to a lesser extent the Limpopo River basin. This study has also shown that these increasing levels of insecurity could result in the securitization of water resource management, which the South African case study supported, but qualified by showing that hydropolitics is subordinate to the broader set of political interactions in which the respective basin states are enmeshed. It was also shown that alternatives do exist to the securitization of water resource management, and the South African case study showed that there are indeed elements of desecuritization taking place, particularly after the ending of the Cold War and the collapse of the apartheid system in South Africa. Significantly, this is taking place in the Incomati River basin, which has a high level of insecurity. Furthermore, it was shown that second-order resources are an important element of regime creation, with failed regimes being correlated with the existence of endemic second-order scarcity in one of the riparian states involved. What now remains is to analyze and assess the South African case study in light of 3 important sets of parameters: securitization processes; regime creation processes; and institutional development processes. This chapter consequently focuses on the hydropolitical processes that have been evident in South Africa’s international river basins with a view to analyzing the political aspects of institutional development in the water sector.