An Integrated Perspective for Urban Water Management 47
water resource development activities. In part, this is an issue of providing better professional skills and financial resources to address critical areas such as integrated water resource planning and management, as well as the operation and maintenance of water-related infrastructure and services. Cities need strategic investment to meet access targets and longterm sustainable outcomes. For the water sector, such a strategic approach requires linking management and planning of water resources and supply to broader urban planning, management, and financing. It is important that water professionals understand and appreciate the significant role of urban planning in potentially supporting or constraining the optimization of their water systems. This requires close coordination, early in the development stage, between planners and water professionals (Binney et al., 2010; Brown et al., 2008). A clustered approach to urban development facilitates the development of decentralized systems, which foster the reuse of treated wastewater (Bieker et al., 2010). A survey of African water utilities revealed that the attitude among African water professionals about the integration of urban planning and sectoral perspectives is ahead of current practice (see Chapter 3 of this book).
Box 2.3
Integration across Legislative and Strategic Frameworks: South African Integrated Development Plans Legislative reform in post-apartheid South Africa sought to decentralize government activities. The introduction of integrated development plans (IDPs) represented a shift in municipal governance toward more management- and performance-oriented criteria. The 1998 White Paper on Local Government positioned the IDP as an integral part of the legislative reform as well as an essential instrument in the planning and management of local government activities. In 2000, the Municipal Services Act specified the minimum contents of the IDP as • a vision for the long-term development of a municipality • an assessment of the current level of servicing, and of economic and social development in a municipality (continued on next page)