Local water governance in South Africa: to which extent participatory approaches facilitate multi-stakeholder negotiations? The Kat River Valley experience

The aim of this paper is to describe and assess the impacts of the Companion Modelling (ComMod) approach on selected aspects of the negotiation process taking place among the members of a Water Users Association (WUA) board in the Kat River Valley of South Africa. After presenting the ComMod experience called KatAWARE, that was conducted in the Kat Valley, the results of on-going and ex-post evaluations of this exercise will be illustrated and discussed. Although there is still room for improvement, the KatAWARE process proved useful to the local WUA as an accompaniment supporting the preparation of a negotiated Catchment Management Plan.

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