How to Deal with Panaceas in Practice? Implications of Integrated Water Resources Management Transfer for Regional and Local Water Governance

Although the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) principles came to the fore in the early 1990s, they are relevant ever since. One indicator is their acknowledgement as Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 6.5 – the implementation of IWRM on all levels. Since the beginning of the 2000s, nation states worldwide have implemented the IWRM principles in policies and laws. 20 years later, the picture of IWRM implementation shows that the Global North performs quite well while the majority of countries in the Global South is not likely to reach the SDG target until 2030. Hence, the question arises why is implementation of IWRM particularly in the Global South not proceeding? One reason for such failure may lie in the negligence of context and complex socio-ecological realities by panaceas such as IWRM. Critics argue that governance systems can be resistant towards the uptake of new institutions, depending on their fit with the current system and more specifically with existing informal institutions. This paper makes a contribution to testing these arguments by analysing the particularly interesting case of IWRM transfer in post-Apartheid South Africa. We argue that depending on the divergence of informal institutions and institutions based on IWRM principles, conflictual rather than synergistic interplay of institutions prevails and may be a reason for the observed implementation deficits. From 1994 onwards, South Africa’s governance system received a make-over; racist laws were abolished and new institutions aiming to foster democracy and equity, e.g. by introducing participatory mechanisms and universal access to water and sanitation, were designed. More than 20 years after its enactment, South Africa’s water policy shows major implementation deficits despite its progressiveness. The study focusses on the implications of the institutional transfer on the local and regional governance levels in the uMngeni river basin in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The analysis of the institutional frame is based on an in-depth literature review, semi-structured expert interviews and participant observation conducted during three months of field experience. With the examples of subsidiarity and stakeholder involvement, we show how the setting of informal institutions (e.g. political culture, former institutional settings, societal norms) poses a barrier to the implementation of IWRM aspects. Traditional leadership is an important component of governance in the uMngeni river basin and currently functions in parallel to and apart from the formal institutional setting. Therefore, we further discuss the potential of conflicts and synergies that traditional governance bears for IWRM implementation highlighting female involvement in water management and securing access to water and sanitation. Our study shows that the interplay between informal and formal institutions, whether it is conflictual or synergetic, plays a crucial role in implementing transferred policies. Its neglect can lead to ineffective policies and laggard implementation processes. Understanding how formal and informal institutions interact in institution transfer processes is essential for designing more effective policies and for avoiding pit-falls that blueprint solutions bring along. The worldwide dissemination of norms as embedded in the SDGs and blueprints such as IWRM should therefore be carefully considered.