Water Boards play a key role in the

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n water sector. They operate dams, bulk water supply infrastructure, some retail infrastructure and some wastewater systems. Some also provide technical assistance to municipalities. Through their role in the operation of dams they also play an important role in water resources management. The Water Boards report to the Department of Water Affairs (DWA). There are 13 Water Boards in South Africa (see list below), together indirectly serving more than 24 million people in 90 municipalities in 2005, or about half the population of South Africa. The three largest Water Boards -

Rand Water Rand Water, previously known as the Rand Water Board, is a South African water utility that supplies potable water to the Gauteng province and other areas of the country and is the largest water utility in Africa. The water is drawn from numerous s ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

Province, Umgeni Water in

KwaZulu Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locat ...

Province and

Overberg __NOTOC__ Overberg is a region in South Africa to the east of Cape Town beyond the Hottentots-Holland mountains. It lies along the Western Cape Province's south coast between the Cape Peninsula and the region known as the Garden Route in the e ...

Water – indirectly serve 10 million, 4 million and 2 million people respectively. This is three times as much (18 million) as all the 12 smaller water boards together (6 million). Rand Water has a more than 100-year history in the

area, the industrial heartland of South Africa. It buys water from DWA, treats it and sells it to large industries, mines and municipalities.

List of Water Boards in South Africa

# Amatola Water Board (East London, Eastern Cape) now incorporates Albany Coast Water Board which served the Boesmansriviermond area, Eastern Cape) # Bloem Water (Bloemfontein, Free State) # Lepelle Northern Water (Phalaborwa, Limpopo) # Magalies Water (Tehabane - Rustenburg, North West) # Mhlathuze Water (Richards Bay, KwaZulu Natal) # Overberg Water (Heidelberg CP, Western Cape) # Rand Water (Johannesburg, Gauteng) # Sedibeng Water (Bothaville, Free State) (formerly Goudveld Water) # Umgeni Water (Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu Natal) (Regional Office located in Durban) The following stock-watering Water Boards are to be transformed into water user associations (see National Water Act section 98(1)): # Kalahari East Water Board (Upington, Northern Cape) (formerly Kalahari-Oos Waterraad) # Kalahari West Water Board (Upington, Northern Cape) # Karos-Geelkoppen Water Board (Joostepan, Northern Cape)

Disestablished Water Boards

# Botshelo Water (Mmabatho, North West) (formerly Bophuthatswana Water Supply Authority and then the North-West Water Supply Authority Board) (disestablished 1 April 2014) # Bushbuckridge Water Board (Mafmani/Nelspruit, Mpumalanga) (disestablished 1 April 2014) # Namakwa Water (Nababeep, Northern Cape) (disestablished 8 April 2011) # Nkangala Water board (Belfast, Mpumalanga) (disestablished) #Pelladrift Water Board (Northern Cape) (disestablished 30 October 2014)

References

{{National Key Points navbox Water supply and sanitation in South Africa