The ‘long now’ of southern African water: Exploring aspects of enchantment and disenchantment in Brandfort

Abstract

Strategies aimed at understanding contemporary South African water supply and sanitation problems require a broad view of factors such as migration, urbanisation and climate change. Working from a case study of the water supply of the town of Brandfort in the Free State Province of South Africa, attention is given to its contemporary water crisis; the origins of the town in the nineteenth century; a view of the deep time of the region; and suggestions for gaining understanding of the town’s contemporary social ecological history in terms of the dynamics of its local water supplies.

Keywords

• Brandfort
• Erfenis Dam
• municipal service delivery
• water and sanitation
• long-term thinking
• social ecological systems
• panarchy