Recent trends in South African water historiography

The discipline of water history is relatively young but since the 1990s there has been growing interest in the field. In this article an exposition is provided on the origins of the discipline of water history as a subdivision of environmental history. The discussion then turns to an outline of recent developments in the historiography of water history in South Africa. Attention is also given to the possibility of extending the study of this discipline into a number of allied fields.


Introduction
Internationally there has been considerable interest in water history in recent years.This is the outcome of an impressive array of intergovernmental global water initiatives that have been launched since the end of World War II (1939-1945), culminating by the 1990s in major water projects, such as those of the World Water Council (WWC) and Global Water Partnership (GWP).1 Historians, as was the case with most other specialists in science and technology, were attracted to the field by widespread concern in the public realm about issues such as global and national water scarcity; population growth; food security; climate change; and the impact of the deteriorating quality of water.
Although there have always been historians and hydrologists working in the field, their role has traditionally been perceived as providing a historical account of the major accomplishments in engineering, environmental management, governance and development in the realm of water studies.The academic interest in water history in more recent times, at least in developing countries of the world, has emanated in part as a response to trends in globalisation.There is a growing need for more information on indigenous cultures and how historical knowledge can inform governance and management studies.Historians, as is the case with anthropologists and archaeologists, are at least able to provide background information on past developments in an era when the rapid development of communication technologies in all parts of the world have superficially obscured the intrinsic value and tangible traces of natural waterscapes and human culture in former times. 2The development of environmental history and its potential role in the modern field of environmental studies, clearly contributed to securing for history a place in what has been an important and growing trend towards interdisciplinarity, multi-disciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in scientific research.
As a discipline history clearly has a role to play in exploring what has on occasion been described as 'the most researched fluid of all time'. 3For some specialists in water studies, such as the hydrologist and geographer Newson, history's value is situated in its ability to shed more light on water distribution, in both space and time, which is the essential interest to human society and the source of the stimulus to drain, dam, irrigate, or go to war. 4 Historians know that water history has a great deal more to offer.It can, for example, make us familiar with technologies of former times that may, in an era of human-induced climate change and resource depletion, be of value in the field of technology and innovation studies. 5Historical knowledge can inform us on how to ensure that the quality of public drinking water does not pose a health threat. 6istory can also, when future water storage facilities are planned, inform decision making on issues of culture and past development, when communities need to be relocated to create space for water storage facilities. 7Of particular relevance in present-day Africa is knowledge of the historical appropriation of land and water, the past struggles over these resources, and the best way in which to meet reasonable demands for restitution rights in an era of change management and governance in Africa. 8ven the potential of participatory opportunities for historians in the field of water studies, a working definition of water history is necessary.For the purposes of this discussion it is posited that: Water history is the study of human culture and its interaction with the environment, specifically in the spatial context of the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, in an effort to locate evidence of change that can be interpreted and analysed from observations of past, present and anticipated future trends.Its reliance on information and knowledge generated in other fields of science and technology implies that sustainable water history also has a significant contribution to make in multidisciplinary collaboration.

Outline
In the discussion to follow attention will be given to the origins of water history as a subdivision of environmental history.The latter is an approach to history that has internationally become one of the more robust fields of investigation.Then the focus moves to some recent and contemporary trends in the field of water history in South Africa.The current emphasis on the historiography of water history in South Africa is the result of steady growth in the field -largely because of its relevance in a water-stressed subcontinent.In comparison to most other African states, the political transformation of the country as an indigenous African state was delayed for the greater part of the twentieth century.Following a period of international political and socio-economic isolation, it was only in the 1990s that this transition took place, literally catapulting South Africa into the international water studies environment.At present the country is partner to most continental and international initiatives in the field of water governance and management.And in the academic field of water studies too, it has made substantial progress.This discussion deals with the manner in which the discipline of history in South Africa has adjusted to these widespread changes.

Water history and its linkage with environmental history
Although the history of water has featured in many forms and under a variety of names for a long time, 9 the genealogy of the current flow of research -especially in the discipline of historical studies -is a by-product of the 1960s.It was at this time, in the United States of America, that Rachel Carson's groundbreaking study, Silent spring, 10 was instrumental in bringing environmental politics to the fore as an important discourse in scientific scholarship.Although history traditionally has a strong political thread, the discipline did not at first feature prominently in debates on environmental politics.Environmental activism was most markedly promoted in the relatively new interdisciplinary field of environmental studies that was growing by leaps and bounds as thousands of first generation 'baby boomers' in the USA enrolled for interdisciplinary postgraduate studies at colleges and universities.Environmental studies, with a smattering of historical information, began to appear in the 1970s. 11By the 1980s, when water history themes featured in new research outputs, enthusiasm for promoting the cause of environmental politics had been relegated to a formalised sub-discourse in mainstream academic thinking.12A number of exemplary works appeared at the time, but for water historians it was Worster's Rivers of Empire13 that caught the attention.The evolution of irrigation in the American West, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, was responsible for a euphoric sense of progress which by the twentieth century had become a development nightmare because of the growing threat of dwindling water resources in some of the arid parts of the USA.
Worster's description of the Dustbowl presented a very pointed environmental message to great effect.It was based on sound scholarship and was also of considerable literary value. 14Another influential work was Tarr and Melosi's book on urban environments and the management of pollution, which shed light on the history of water and how it has been used ever since the onset of American urban development. 15As early as the 1970s both these authors were at the forefront of opening up the potential of a focus on water in the discipline of environmental history.
In Western Europe and the United Kingdom, according to McNeil, the discipline of environmental history was slow to take off. 16However, it does appear that some important work had been done in the field of water history as early as the 1970s, with publications such as Stanbridge's multi-volume study on sewage treatment in Britain. 17nce research began there was soon a consistent flow of significant results.The development of environmental history, particularly in Britain, had an exponential effect in the British Commonwealth, of which South Africa once again 18 became part in 1994. 19In Canada, Australia and New Zealand, collaboration and exchanges between historians increased because they were better informed on developments in environmental studies. 20As of the 1990s, water history research became more relevant in view of the anticipated regional impact of global climate change.Much can be learnt from studies undertaken in Australia, which like South Africa is a waterstressed country. 21e history of technology has also been a major influence on the evolution of water history. 22Researchers in engineering sciences, in particular, have made a substantial contribution and will no doubt do so in the future, because of the contemporary relevance of links between past and present in the technologies of mineralogy, hydroelectricity, irrigation, digital data-capturing, as well as water supply and treatment systems.Historical studies have also been prominent in the fields of environmental, legal, health and management sciences that are currently an integral part of water studies curricula at tertiary education institutions in all parts of the world.
On numerous occasions in recent years, the potential of water history has been put to the test in debates on fashionable issues such as Tony Allan's concept of 'virtual water' 23 and the 'water footprint'. 24requently such work was not by historians, but by specialists making use of history.History began to form an integral part of their discussions on issues such as the commodification of water, 25 transboundary water catchment management, 26 hydropolitics, 27 and water wars. 28There appears to be consensus that historical studies is relevant in water research -especially in respect of critical thinking strategies that have traditionally been associated with the discipline. 29storiographical trends in South Africa  39 Apart from these publications, water history did not feature prominently in the world of South African letters.The cohesive factor in these studies was the unmistakable consensus that water deserved attention in appraisals of the South African environment of the 1970s.It was not activist in style, but merely informative.These authors had clearly been influenced by the popularity of environmentalism and environmental consciousness in Western Europe and the United States of America.They then used the discursive approach to historical writing to convey their impressions of the aquatic realm to South African readers.
The absence of professional historians in water research was the result of external (international) circumstances and internal (national) politics.Mainstream historical writing until the late-1980s was an important battleground for the struggle against the apartheid policies of the former National Party government. 40While a section of the historical fraternity had been internationally isolated for their tacit support of the government's policies, revisionist and Africanist historians, working in the then fashionable paradigm of neo-Marxist thought, as well as the popular History Workshop Movement, provided substantial momentum to initiatives aimed at bringing to an end the racial policies of the day.In essence it was a debate between liberal historians, revisionist historians (mostly neo-Marxists and structuralists) and Afrikaner nationalist historians.Liberal historians tended to outline the fallacies of race issues in South Africa.The revisionists wanted to redefine the prevailing historical discourse by optimising class, labour and capital in a framework that could to South Africans at grassroots level. 44Meanwhile, the government was trying to address Cold War issues and win friends in the West by waging border wars against national liberation fighters in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Mozambique and Botswana.
With the exception of a small number of specialists in the field of local and regional history, water did not register on the radar screens of historians.In general terms relevant information on the history of urban water supply management was located in the local, urban and regional historiography of South Africa.This genre enjoyed a long tradition of amateur dominance until historians at Rhodes University promoted active research and the division for historical studies at South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), founded Contree, a peer reviewed journal aimed at promoting interest in local and regional history.Despite its relatively chequered path until the late-1960s academic local and urban history now had a marked focus on interdisciplinary history.There were also some works which had leanings towards the Annales School of historians. 45Interestingly, it was also an area where collaboration began between South African historians of different political persuasions.In the interest of local and regional history, many historians chose to set aside their political differences and share insights on common research interests. 46This collaboration gave a degree of respectability to local and regional history and opened up the way for the integration of liberal (Englishspeaking) and conservative (Afrikaans-speaking) approaches to the discipline.In many of the articles, water featured as an element for understanding the history of local and regional environments.
The first sign of change was evident in the second half of the 1980s when Kevin Shillington, noted for his revisionist works, published his research on the Vaalharts irrigation scheme.not environmental in orientation, but instead explored the subject of irrigation as an extension of historical racial discrimination in the country's farming sector.Although relatively brief, it was nevertheless a significant contribution.Since the 1940s, earlier works, primarily by geographers, tended to underscore the heroic accomplishments of irrigation in South Africa 48 -a tendency that was to persist for some time to come. 49A response to Shillington's ideas only came from De Jager and Marais in the 1990s; they delved into the prehistory of the scheme, pointing to its firm roots in colonialist thought on development. 50They were writing in the tumultuous era of South Africa's political transition to a multi-racial democracy and their work thus lost much of its potential impact.Furthermore, in this study there was no trace of environmental and/ or technology history.It was more in the nature of a response to what had been written by Shillington.The authors accentuated the fact that the political exclusion of Africans in the irrigation developments at Vaalharts, pre-dated the apartheid era -a debate that had already been opened by Lubbe in the 1960s. 51

Developments since the 1990s
In broad perspective, the 1990s were dismal years for the discipline of history.The country's political liberation shifted the focus to the public sphere of active, socio-economic and political transformation.
The discipline was also influenced by comprehensive changes in education policies.In terms of outcomes based education (OBE) history, as an independent discipline, only featured as an elective major in the later phases of secondary school curricula.Previously it had been an integral part of primary and secondary education as a formative and independent discipline.In the new political dispensation the nature and content of historical studies changed overnight.On the tertiary level in departments of history at the 23 universities in the country, student enrolments dropped significantly.Many teaching historians either went into early retirement or moved to different fields of academic endeavour. 52This changed perspective on the discipline of history was partly the result of new policies introduced in higher education in South Africa, aligning the country with trends in other parts of the world.It was also to some extent the product of the new dominant discourse on the country's past.The history of the country had to be rewritten in such a manner that all South Africans featured, especially those of colour, who had previously been sidelined and even ignored.The liberation struggle and the triumphant road to democracy now took centre stage.In essence, it was only the first phase in a dialectical process of historiographical revision that would see debates conducted in a variety of fields between historians and the public at large.The country's history has remained, up to the present, a strongly contested field of debate between all and sundry on issues of ideology and race.
Against this backdrop historians actively started working on the critical re-consideration of their discipline.It is here that water history began to emerge.Shell and Guelke conducted an investigation into the exploitation of indigenous people on the frontiers of the Cape Colony and examined how the whites had pirated their knowledge of the environment to locate water sources in the arid interior of southern Africa. 53Perhaps fittingly at the time, the urban water history of Cape Town made significant progress.Grant's findings on the history of water in Cape Town between 1840 and 1920 54 informed concurrent research at the University of Cape Town on this new focus in the historiography of South Africa's mother city.
Traditionally, the history of irrigation in South Africa was an important field of scholarship, and popular history. 55 The latest framework, implemented since the 1990s, has focused extensively on issues such as: water demand management, instead of merely providing costly, ineffective and unsustainable storage facilities; a distinct concern for the environment; respecting access to clean drinking water as a basic human right in a society where the majority of the population had formerly been deprived of adequate water supply and sanitation on racial grounds; and finally, the awareness that water has become a finite resource that needs to be managed in a sustainable manner.
At the time of planning the new legislation there was very little in the way of historical research on water to inform the policy makers of the day. 66For example, the work on sanitation and health by Swanson (1977) 67 and that by Unterhalter (1982) 68 could shed some relevant light.And in the field of water supply and management there was Wall's 1980s experiment, with the idea of a 'new history' for South Africa, focusing in on the history of water resources. 69There was also Crosser's master's study on the evolution of the public water supply of Johannesburg from a private to a public sector service in the period 1886-1906, 70 while in the field of technology history, Grant and Flinn reported, in passing, on the history of sanitation and water supply in Johannesburg. 71notable feature of the work that had been done up to the late 1990s was that they were all essentially micro-histories.No comprehensive overview (grand narrative) of South Africa's water history was available.Despite all the shortcomings, however, the information was important for a critique of the country's 'pre-1994' water service structures. 72 1999 it seemed as if the long dry spell in water historiography was coming to an end.Wall wrote on the comparative history of water management. 73Murray, a city engineer by profession, was busy researching the water history of Cape Town and by 2001 his work had culminated in a respectable working document. 74This project, which is currently (2008) a collaborative initiative under the auspices of Southern Water, the National archives repository in Cape Town and the University of Cape Town, promises to eventually become one of the most comprehensive histories (in timeframes) of any city in South Africa. 75The need for urban water histories, up to the present, remains crucial.For example, the first detailed water history research on Bloemfontein since 196076 was published by Botes in 2001. 77angel's study on Johannesburg's water opened up new discourses in water history with a unique accent on post-1994 policy objectives such as poverty, housing and proper sanitation. 78Although she primarily worked in the field of social history, there was also a focus on environmental history.Another important project, currently in the process of completion, is Mäki's comparative history of urban water supply, health and sanitation in four South African cities. 79 This Finnish initiative should be of great value to water historians of Africa.The author's research group at the University of Tampere has for some time been involved in extensive collaborative water history research in Africa.
The new millennium also saw work produced in the field of health and sanitation.Carruthers wrote a brief but eloquent environmental history of the Delta wastewater treatment works that served parts of Johannesburg from the 1930s to 1963. 80More recently Parnell touched on sanitation issues in her study on the slum-yards in downtown Johannesburg. 81Phatlane's 2006 study on poverty, health and disease in the apartheid era, also focused on diseases related to poor living conditions and a lack of sanitary services in the former African 'homeland' residential areas of South Africa. 82e environmental justice approach to water history currently tends to be well suited to regional history.Van Eeden's work, in partnership with natural scientists, activists and journalists on the de-watering of sinkholes in the Carletonville area of Gauteng, 83 marked the beginning of a more comprehensive, ongoing regional project on the Wonderfonteinspruit in North West Province and parts of Gauteng. 84his strain of historiography is contemporary in focus, 85 but also relates to an approach to the discipline, known as a history of the present. 86Typical themes that are investigated tend to have a strong message of environmental justice 87 and seek strategies to clean up pollution caused by industry, particularly the mining sector. 88The collapse of local and regional water treatment infrastructure has also received attention. 89It is in this context that civil society becomes a major actor and participant in research initiatives.
In the cultural and technological history of water, Staples' study on the mills of southern Africa 90 was a continuation of outstanding work that had been done earlier by James Walton. 91A new contributor to the historiography of water technology in South Africa is the University of Johannesburg civil engineer, Johannes Haarhoff.He completed his postgraduate studies in the discipline of history and has subsequently worked on the desalination of water and water supply on ships of the Dutch East India Company (DEIC) in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. 92He has also collaborated with Finnish water historians on a comparative history of urban wells and toilets in South Africa and Finland 93 and has been at the helm of a collaborative initiative on the history of water transfer technology to Gauteng. 94In the field of the cultural history of water, Gouws recently completed research on domestic water supply and sanitation in the rural pioneer Highveld home in the period 1840-1910. 95This study sheds light on the manner in which water technology was transferred from the urban to the rural domestic environment in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.It forms part of a more comprehensive project that is currently under way on the history of the Vaal River. 96The recent WRC publication, Our water our culture: a glimpse into the water history of the South African people, also provides some valuable overviews on South Africa's water history from a cultural and anthropological perspective. 97 important social science project of the Water Research Commission since 2000 has been the hydropolitical history of transboundary water in southern Africa. 98Turton, formerly of the University of Pretoria, and currently at South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), led the project, which was notable for its vast trajectory of sub-continental water research work aimed at incorporating the theoretical approaches of the political science concept of hydropolitics.Hydropolitics, first pioneered by Waterbury in the Middle East, 99 has become a popular field of research for water historians.The Zimbabwean historian, Muchaparara Musemwa, working in South Africa, has also recently produced research results in the field. 100lated to hydropolitical history is research on big dam projects.The Lesotho Highlands Water project (LHWP), completed in 1996, is one of the major water schemes in Africa and initially attracted favourable comment.However, by the early 2000s critical scholarship on the scheme was evident in the work of Thabane, who pointed to the effects of what appears to have been the indiscriminate relocation of people from for the construction site of the Mohale Dam.101There has also been work by Bracking, who reported on corrupt practices in the project, 102 and subsequently there has also been negative comment in the scholarship of Mwangi. 103This research suggests that the history of transnational hydropolitics will still feature for some time to come on the agenda for researchers of southern African water history.Linked to work on the LHWP is the history of major hydro-electricity schemes, such as the Grand Inga 104 and Cahora Basa facilities. 105esearch on hydroelectric power generation is currently an important at a time of increasing power shortages, not only in South Africa but elsewhere on the continent. 106The historiography on hydropower and trans-boundary water supply systems in southern Africa presents a challenge to researchers.There is a wealth of themes that require exploration.For example, there are interesting international and local debates on the impact of hydro-electrical technology on the aquatic environment.It seems as if the advantages and disadvantages of hydropower will in the not too distant future be weighed up against the alternative of nuclear power generation.In the process, the desirability of large dams can be opened for discussion again, as was the case in the 1990s and early 2000s when extensive international deliberations were the order of the day, under the auspices of the International Commission of Large Dams (ICOLD). 107

Looking towards the future
From the discussion thus far it is evident that water history as a discipline has relied extensively on a variety of related fields in the study of water.This is most evident from the evolutionary development of the International Water History Association (IWHA), the disciplinary institution that has as the primary objective to promote the study of water history in the international domain.Water researchers in other parts of the world have been active in the field of water history for a many years.Networking was traditionally confined to academic societies that were seldom dedicated to the pursuit of specialised interests in water history.It was only in 1999 -as a result of the strongly expressed need for coordination -that the IWHA was founded in Wales. 108The society currently has about 700 members.Not all are historians.Most participants at the biennial conferences of the association have been trained in other disciplines.What binds members together are two basic issues: locating sources of knowledge on water in the past; and using history as a primary or secondary vehicle for the better understanding of the water realm.Judging from attendance trends at IWHA conferences (held thus far in Bergen (2001), Alexandra (2003), Paris (2005) and Tampere (2007)) there is a lively interest in the field.The IWHA is perhaps one of the most important institutional structures at our disposal to promote greater cohesion and constructive debate on the nature of water history and trends for future development.
Similarly, in sub-Saharan Africa the field of past perspectives on water has generated wide interest.African researchers and their African Studies counterparts have not been idle.The Drakensberg conference of 2008, under the auspices of the IWHA, the South Africa's Water Research Commission (WRC) and North-West University (NWU), was the second conference of its kind since 2004 in sub-Saharan Africa.Indications are that the field of specialisation in water history on the continent is alive and well.Many conventional historians still pursue their discipline from a tradition of writing critical narrative history with a strong accent on individualised interpretations, methodologically rooted in the framework of the classical hermeneutic approach.These historians have a valuable role to play and their particular approach to water history should be respected when they participate in collaborative projects. 111This will serve to prevent potential misunderstanding and acrimony.At the same time, in an era when the study of water history as a discipline has become varied and multi-faceted, historians need to explore the potential of multi-disciplinary collaboration, to open up new frontiers and new methods in the field.Theoretical work in Europe, such as that of Kaivo-oja, Katko and Seppälä, 112 aimed at linking history and futures studies in research, is an example of what would typically pass for hydrohistory in contemporary collaborative research initiatives.Currently UNESCO's International Hydrological Programme (IHP) tends to support the shift to ecohydrology -an area that takes particular note of ecology (environment) in the study of hydrology-related research. 113The approach of being open to transdisciplinarity and Mode II-trends, as is the case in tertiary-level teaching and research in many parts of the world, suggests that history as a discipline will continue to develop as part of a discourse that is intended to generate research results that are relevant to society. 114rom the perspective of potential research funding and human resource management at universities and research institutions, the demand for greater transdisciplinary may well have a profound impact on monolithic scientific disciplines in future.
A field of investigation that deserves more attention from water historians is heritage and tourism studies.Clynnick's chapter on the Hartebeespoort irrigation scheme forms part of a study on the famous 'Cradle of Humankind' heritage site in South Africa's Gauteng Province.Other themes addressed in A search for origins: science, history and South Africa's 'Cradle of Humankind', include the history of science, palaeontology and the reappraisal of the heritage regiona major tourism destination in the South African interior. 115In 2003 the Gauteng-based water utility, Rand Water, celebrated its centenary.Considerable attention was given to the history of potable water supply services to Gauteng and the neighbouring Mpumalanga, North West Province and parts of the Northern Free State. 116It became evident that using the water utility as a focal point it would be possible (for example in the Vaal Triangle, where much of Rand Water's water is processed) to develop opportunities to promote water heritage in a region that is bound to enter a phase of post-industrialisation in the future.
For some time to come the management history of South Africa's water resources and water catchments should be a priority in research.A recent publication by the department of water affairs and forestry (DWAF) provides an overview of South Africa's water supply and service delivery history in the period 1994-2004.Written from the perspective of aligning the country's water services sector with the more comprehensive millennium development goals (MDG), it provides information on some of the major accomplishments achieved in the new government's first decade.It also highlights the integrated legislation introduced and is generally informative on some of the problems experienced at governance level. 117The work can be of value for water historians as a platform to further research.However, one prerequisite would be to be access to primary source materials.The management of water for irrigation farming, which remains one of the major sectors of water consumption in South Africa, is important.More work, similar to the recent study by Beinart, for example, 118 needs to be done.
Finally, South Africa's water history remains a project in the process of change and on-going development.It is evident that scholarship in the field can and should be expanded.In particular there is an urgent need for historians and natural scientists to work together.The work of McCarthy, Venter and Ellery on the Klip River is indicative of a valuable area for research collaboration between historians and natural scientists. 119Waterborne disease is currently responsible for the deaths annually of an estimated 1,6 billion children in all parts of the world.In South Africa there have been some serious outbreaks of typhus.Of particular significance were those in Delmas in the Mpumalanga Province in 2005; and there were indications of a new outbreak in 2007.The findings of recent health sciences research on the state of water-based disease in South Africa in 2000, offer a sound starting point for collaborative research by historians and their colleagues in the health sciences. 120Of particular importance here is the quantitative analysis and contemporary history of sewage pollution in South Africa's rivers by De Villiers and Thiart. 121What now remains to be done is for historians to fill in the detail with discourses human behaviour and interaction in the past.Work of this nature is of substantive importance for researchers interested in locating developmental trends in the country's water governance structures.This will inform our historical insight on the processes of institutional change over time.It would also be meaningful to look at strategies in transdisciplinary research methodologies that can integrate levels and forms of knowledge over a broad spectrum. 122
In historiographical terms water history in South African is still a young field.Quantitatively, output can hardly be compared to similar work in North America, Western Europe, Southeast Asia, North Africa and the Middle East.It is safe to state that there is currently a paucity of good research results.30Thereasonsforthisstate of affairs form the backdrop of the following discussion.Ever since the late-1960s there has been in South Africa a concerted effort to promote scientific research in the field of the water studies. 31ment's approval of the Water Research Act, No. 34 of 1971, was an affirmation of the need to promote research in fields of science that could be of value to the government's department of water affairs.The Water Research Commission (WRC) was a direct outcome of these developments.32Unfortunately,historyhastraditionallybeenclassified as part of the humanities/social sciences, and did not feature prominently.33Thentoo,therewere only slight indications of an awareness of environmental issues in water studies.34Waterhistory was clearly not in demand.Exceptions were the historical writing of professional and academic engineers such as Dr Bob Laburn at the Rand Water Board; 35 Prof. Des Midgley, at the University Management of the water resources of the Republic of South Africa, (Department of water affairs, Pretoria, 1986).At most human geography seemed to enjoy acceptance in the hydrological environment of the department at the time.34 See P Steyn, "Popular environmental struggles in South Africa, 1972-1992" in Historia, 47(1), May 2001, pp.125-158; P Steyn, "Environmental management in South Africa: twenty years of governmental response to the global challenge" in Historia, 46(1), May 2001, pp.25-53.35 RJ Laburn 'n Historiese oorsig oor watervoorsiening aan die Witwatersrand the Witwatersrand; 36 a literary commemorative work for the Water Year by FA Venter; 37 a chapter by the inveterate conservationist TC Robertson in a volume on South Africa's natural heritage, edited by Andries du Plessis; 38 and some work of the environmental journalist, James Clarke.
30 For a preliminary overview of historiographical trends in South African water history, see JWN Tempelhoff, "'n Historiografiese verkenning van watergeskiedenis" Koers, 70(3), 2005, pp.473-514.The article takes a broad view of historiographical trends in the field and does not focus specifically on South Africa.31Practical training for professionals operating in the water sector dates back to 1937 with the founding of the Water Institute of South Africa (WISA).See Anon., "WISA has proud history" in IMIESA Yearbook 2004, May 2004, pp.58-59.32JWN Tempelhoff, The substance of ubiquity: Rand Water 1903-2003, (Kleio Publishers, Vanderbijlpark, 2003), Chapter 8. 33 One of the pioneers in the field of environmental studies at the time was Prof.Richard Fuggle of the University of Cape Town.He also asserted considerable influence in promoting a greater awareness of water in the South African environment.See RF Fuggle Collision of rapprochement: environmental challenge in S. Africa, (University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 1974).For a general impression of the thinking on water and its relative position in the broader spectrum of disciplinary thought, see Republic of South Africa (RSA), Department of water affairs, (Gepubliseerde eerste voordrag in 'n reeks gelewer aan die Johannesburg Historical Society op 26 Augustus 1970), (Walker & Snashall, g.p., g.d.); RJ Laburn, The Rand Water Board 75 1903-1978: a treatise on the Rand Water Board with specific reference to its responsibilities achievements and policies during 75 years of operation, (Rand Water Board, Johannesburg, February 1979).of Resources of SouthernAfrica: today and tomorrow: proceedings of a conference held by the Associated Scientific and Technical Societies of South Africa at Johannesburg, (The Associated Scientific and Technical Societies of South Africa, Johannesburg, 1976).37See, for example: FA Venter, (ed.), Water, (Afrikaanse Pers-Boekhandel, vir die ministerie van waterwese, Pretoria, c. 1971-2); Hobbs, LD and RF Phelines (eds), much of the prevailing Africanist historical thought.Afrikaner nationalist historians, in turn, tended to favour an ethnic approach in which Afrikaner interests appeared to dominate the history of South Africa. 41istory classrooms at universities were crammed with large numbers of students, eager to learn more of the country's racial past.Methodologically the liberal and revisionist approaches, by far the strongest groupings of the three, tended to have a close association with social history and its dominant methodological discourse of the 1970s and 1980s.Historians working in this paradigm were also more aware of international trends in the discipline.To all intents and purposes the liberal and revisionist historians were basically concentrating on political history.A clear historiographical discrepancy is discernable if a comparison is drawn between trends in the discipline in the United States of America and South Africa.The American Society for Environmental History, the first of its kind in the world, was founded in 1975 -in the aftermath of the Vietnam War.At the time the South African government faced increasing pressure for the formal recognition of trade unions of colour which would bring an end to racial discrimination in the workplace.
36 See for example his brief, but insightful historical observations in D Midgley, "Water resources -the Southern African picture" in G Baker (ed.), perspective" in HE Stolten (ed.), History making and present day politics: the meaning of collective memory in South Africa, (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, 2007), pp.280-291.Recent trends in water historiography TD, 4(1), July 2008, pp.271-296.accommodate 42 Historians accordingly focused on the social history of labour in South Africa.A decade later, when Donald Worster urged American environmental historians to look beyond the divide between the history of nature and the history of culture, 43 thousands of black South Africans were protesting in the townships, making the country ungovernable.At the time the most influential historians in South Africa were transmitting the latest research findings in the field of popular people's history (and struggles) 41 For more on this see C Saunders, The making of the South African past: major historians on race and class, (David Philip, Cape Town, 1988); C Saunders, Writing history: South Africa's urban past and other essays (Human Sciences Research Council, Pretoria, 1992); FA van Jaarsveld, Afrikanergeskiedskrywing: verlede, hede en toekoms (Lex Patria, Johannesburg, 1992); FA van Jaarsveld, The Afrikaner's interpretation of South African history, (Simondium, Cape Town, 1964); FA van Jaarsveld, Geskiedkundige verkenninge, (Van Schaik, Pretoria, 1974); HM Wright, The burden of the present: liberal-radical controversy over southern African history (David Philip, Cape Town, 1977); K Smith, The changing past: trends in South African historical writing (Southern, Johannesburg, 1988).For (University of South Africa Press, Pretoria, 2006), pp.187-242 and 243-314.43 D Worster, "History as natural history: an essay on theory and method" in The Pacific Historical Review, 53(1), February 1984, pp.1-19.
47His chapter was 44 See HE Stolten, "History in the new South Africa: an introduction" in HE Stolten (ed.), History making and present day politics: the meaning of collective memory in South Africa, (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Uppsala, 2007), pp.5-50.45 The Annales school of historians emerged at the start of the twentieth century in the France and were notable for a strong social economic approach in which geography and Marxist theories of historical materialism featured prominently.The Annales approach was fashionable in all parts of the world until the late-1970s.They have also asserted a substantial influence on water historiography and its methodologies.46 See JWN Tempelhoff, The challenge of regional en local history in South Africa (University of Zululand Publication series B79, Kwadlangeswa, 1990).47 K Shillington, "Irrigation, agriculture and the state: The Harts Valley in historical perspective" in W Beinart, P Delius & S Trapido (eds.),Putting a plough to the ground: accumulation and dispossession in rural South Africa, 1850-1930, (Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1986), pp.311-335.Recent trends in water historiography TD, 4(1), July 2008, pp.271-296.
65 formed part of the history of life in southern Africa -one of the 30 driest regions of the world.It was also part of twentieth century socioeconomic history in which poor whitism, 56 missionary history 57 and the local history of rural settlements 58 featured prominently.Legassick, working on Upington, 59 re-introduced irrigation history.This time the focus was on the process of land claims and restitution in the Northern Cape.60It formed an interesting sub-discourse in the prevalent economic debate on the redistribution of wealth in the new multi-racial, democracy.Researched and written at the time of the 1994 transition from an old to a new South Africa, Legassick's work highlighted the relevance of irrigation and the manner in which it directly and indirectly shaped the lives of humans in society.People of colour, according to him, had been exploited for their labour in the construction of irrigation schemes and in the process had lost possession of the land on which they had been resident.Another contemporary publication was that by Jacobs who undertook research on the history of irrigation and water management at Kuruman.61She provides an exposition of how indigenous people were systematically driven away from the eyes of local springs, cutting local communities off from water supplies until they were forced by circumstances to either leave or become subservient to white residents.A similar picture of land dispossession on the basis of race emerged from this study.This seminal work has contributed to Nancy Jacobs's status as one of the pioneers of environmental justice in South African environmental historiography.Environment, power and injustice: a South African history, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2003).1956,wasout of step with the requirements for a new multiracial democratic society with the approach of the new millennium.63Waterwashighontheagenda of the African National Congress (ANC) government's Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP).64Interms of the new constitution of South Africa, approved in 1996, access to clean drinking water was singled out as a basic human right.65Inthe next two years South Africa's Water Services Act, No. 108 of 1997 and the National Water Act, No. 36 of 1998 were approved by parliament.A complex transformational process was set in motion to implement the third comprehensive revision of the country's water sector since the formation of the Union in 1910.In the first era, following the implementation of the Irrigation and Conservation of water Act, No. 8 of 1912, the focus had been on using water for creating welfare and promoting industry.The second era, that of the Water Act, No. 54 of 1956, was notable for South Africa's remarkable economic development.The attention was focused on creating sufficient water supplies to keep abreast with demand.
109It only requires more encouragement and a greater commitment to communication between researchers.Africa.In the field of contemporary water studies it is important for historians in the region, in collaboration with water specialists who are interested in water history, to seek closer collaboration.A sound example of this nature is recent work conducted by Lumby, an economist and economic historian, who has collaborated with Matete and Rwelamira on aspects of water management history as part of a project for the Southern African Development Community (SADC).110 109 A number of the papers presented at the conference were subsequently published in a book.See JWN Tempelhoff (ed.), African water histories: transdisciplinary discourses, (North-West University Vanderbijlpark, 2005).southern