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Public trusteeship and water management: developing the South African concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of South African water law

Includes bibliographical references.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Young, Cheri-Leigh
Other Authors: Mostert, Hanri
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Private Law 2014
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access_status_str Open Access
author Young, Cheri-Leigh
author2 Mostert, Hanri
author_browse Mostert, Hanri
Young, Cheri-Leigh
author_facet Mostert, Hanri
Young, Cheri-Leigh
author_sort Young, Cheri-Leigh
collection Thesis
description Includes bibliographical references.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9537
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:21.936Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2014
publishDateRange 2014
publishDateSort 2014
publisher Department of Private Law
publisherStr Department of Private Law
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/9537 Public trusteeship and water management: developing the South African concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of South African water law Young, Cheri-Leigh Mostert, Hanri Includes bibliographical references. South Africa is faced with extraordinary challenges when it comes to managing its water resources. To redress the results of discrimination caused by Apartheid and its political antecedents, the modern constitutional state sought to address the issues of access to water resources and sanitation services by introducing section 24 of the Constitution, which provides for the right to an environment that is not harmful to one's health or well-being. In addition, section 27 seeks to entrench the right of access to sufficient water. Consequently, the National Water Act 36 of 1998 was introduced, which caters for the administration of water resources. The Water Services Act 108 of 1997, which seeks to ensure the provision of water and sanitation services completes the statutory framework. This framework provides for the state to be either the trustee or the custodian of our water resources. However, the terms 'trustee' and 'custodian' are not defined by either statutes. The legal framework nevertheless sets the parameters for state trusteeship and/or custodianship. This may be gleaned from the constitutional provisions, the National Water Act and the Water Services Act, as well as their accompanying regulations and policies. Despite oversights and inconsistencies, it is argued, the legislative framework very clearly provides the statutory content of trusteeship and custodianship. The state is expected to manage water in accordance with the prescribed constitutional mandate. The nature of the terminology used in the legislation has prompted a comparison by academic authors of modern trusteeship with the Roman and Roman-Dutch law classifications of res publicae. Alternatively, the public trust doctrine has been used as a comparator for evaluating the functioning of trusteeship. However, there are numerous problems with both of these comparisons. Neither facilitates a clear, meaningful understanding of trusteeship or custodianship. The thesis set out here is that, as trusteeship and custodianship are both statutory creatures, the nature of their content must be sought in the legal framework itself. In particular, the National Water Resource Strategy provides insight into the duties of the state. The Strategy aims to give effect to this legal framework, and provides that there are three values that water management aims to achieve: sustainability, equity and efficiency. 2014-11-11T07:00:36Z 2014-11-11T07:00:36Z 2014 Doctoral Thesis Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9537 eng application/pdf Department of Private Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Young, Cheri-Leigh
Public trusteeship and water management: developing the South African concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of South African water law
thesis_degree_str Doctoral
title Public trusteeship and water management: developing the South African concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of South African water law
title_full Public trusteeship and water management: developing the South African concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of South African water law
title_fullStr Public trusteeship and water management: developing the South African concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of South African water law
title_full_unstemmed Public trusteeship and water management: developing the South African concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of South African water law
title_short Public trusteeship and water management: developing the South African concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of South African water law
title_sort public trusteeship and water management developing the south african concept of public trusteeship to improve management of water resources in the context of south african water law
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/9537
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