Water scarcity in rural South Africa is an escalating crisis driven by climate change, governance inefficiencies, and socio-economic disparities. This perspective synthesizes secondary data through the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) and Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) frameworks, offering a novel lens that bridges macro-policy failures with micro-community resilience, unlike single-framework analyses. Drawing on existing case studies, including Cape Town’s “Day Zero” drought and the Greater Giyani Municipality, we highlight both current advances, such as smart metering, rainwater harvesting, and decentralized purification systems, and persistent vulnerabilities, including erratic rainfall, declining dam levels, and under-resourced infrastructure. The IWRM lens exposes gaps in institutional coordination, policy enforcement, and infrastructure investment that undermine equitable water distribution. The SES perspective reveals how rural communities navigate scarcity through informal networks, traditional knowledge, and local adaptation strategies, but also illustrates the limitations of these responses in the absence of state support. We argue that neither top-down governance nor grassroots innovation alone can achieve water security. Instead, sustainable solutions require hybrid, multi-scalar strategies that align regulatory reforms with community-driven resilience. Future efforts must prioritize adaptive infrastructure, context-sensitive technologies, and inclusive governance frameworks to build climate-resilient and equitable rural water systems. South Africa’s experience offers instructive lessons for global water governance, demonstrating the need for holistic, systems-based approaches that integrate technical, social, and institutional dimensions. This perspective contributes to a strategic framing for future policy and research aimed at ensuring long-term water security and sustainability in vulnerable contexts.

The ENSO phenomenon is associated with below average rainfall and influences the climate regime of southern Africa. With the advent of climate change, drought frequencies and magnitudes have worsened in the developing world and this in turn negatively impacts the natural environment and communities’ livelihoods. This study evaluated the relationship between El Niño-induced drought and reservoir water levels over the Albasini Dam Catchment (ADC) areas in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Standardised indices (i.e., SPI and SSI) were used to define drought events over the study area. Mann–Kendall and Sequential Mann–Kendall were used for trends analysis as well as correlation and wavelet coherence to evaluate the relationship between variables of interest. There exists a relationship between El Niño-induced drought event and reservoir water levels. This was shown by the correlation between drought indices and reservoir water levels with the coefficient of determination being stronger at the 12th timescale (i.e., 0.743 and 0.59) compared to the 6th timescale (i.e., 0.07 and 0.44) for both precipitation and streamflow indices, respectively. Wavelet analysis further showed that there existed a phased relationship between the two variables. Although there are other factors that may affect reservoir water resources, these study findings show that El Niño-induced drought also negatively affect water resources. Therefore, this study recommends the development of multidimensional and multiscale management strategies to minimise drought impacts and adaptation in the region.

Drought is a complex phenomenon resulting from below-average rainfall and is characterized by frequency, duration, and severity, occurring at a regional scale with dire consequences, especially in semiarid environments. This study used the Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) to assess drought severity in two district municipalities in Limpopo Province. Rainfall and air temperature data from 12 stations covering 1970–2020 were obtained from the Agricultural Research Council. The calculation of RDI relies on the monthly accumulation ratio of total rainfall to potential evapotranspiration (PET). For this study, PET was estimated using the Hargreaves and Samani temperature-based approach. The RDI results showed a high spatial–temporal variation in drought characteristics over the study area. All stations experienced extreme drought conditions in different years, with the maximum drought severity (-3.40) occurring from 2002–2003 in the western parts of the study area, indicating extreme drought. Furthermore, the results revealed continuous drought conditions over various periods, including severe droughts between 1995 and 1998 and between 2014 and 2016, with the severity varying between mild and moderate drought conditions. The results reveal notable but nonuniform drought patterns as the climate evolves, with potential implications for water availability and livelihoods. The study's findings underscore the significance of adopting multidimensional approaches to drought assessment that encompass meteorological and hydrological factors to inform strategies for adaptive water management and policy formulation in the face of a changing climate.

Jàmbá: Journal of Disaster Risk Studies aims to engage, inform, and catalyse scholarly discourse within research and real-world practices that work towards the minimisation of vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout developing communities with special emphasis on Africa.