The Eastern Cape includes two of South Africa's Water Management Areas (WMA), namely the Mzimvubu to Keiskamma WMA and the Fish to Tsitsikamma WMA. In addition, the Kraai sub-WMA falls within Eastern Cape, and is included in this report. There are three main rivers in the Mzimvubu to Keiskamma WMA, and the area is largely used for livestock farming and subsistence agriculture with commercial timber grown in the higher rainfall zones. Land use in the Fish to Tsitsikamma WMA is mainly sheep and mohair farming, with extensive cultivation along the main rivers. The water of the Fish and Sundays River have a naturally high salinity, making it necessary to transfer water from the Gariep Dam via the 80km Orange-Fish tunnel.

Resource quality

Water quality is an important issue in the Eastern Cape, and issues such as eutrophication of water resources, non-compliance of sewage works and pollution into surface and groundwater are important. Groundwater resources are vulnerable to land-based activities, difficult to rehabilitate once polluted and are slow to recover from over-exploitation. The indicators for resource quality are:

• Surface water nutrients;
• Surface water toxicity; and
• Groundwater nutrients.

Resource use and exploitation

The over-abstraction of surface and groundwater is also a key concern. Water scarcity can affect regional development, and steps must be taken to adjust the supply and demand management policy should the use of water resources exceed the availability. The indicator for this issue is:

• Total surface water demand.

Implementation of Catchment Management Agencies

The institutional framework is one of the most important aspects of water resource management, as it determines effectiveness of policy implementation. In this report the indicator assessing this is:

• Effectiveness of water resource management.