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Abstract

South Africa’s Water Research Commission, a state based finding entity, was established in 1971. The Commission was formed in response to recommendations of a 1970 Commission of Inquiry into Water Matters following an extensive period of drought. At the time of its inception, hydrology research in the country was already quite well established. Forestry hydrology related research at the Jonkershoek and Cathedral Peak research catchments had started several decades earlier and there had been many influential reports produced by local scientists involved in those catchments and their associated research programmes. However, the formation of the WRC and its solid funding base shifted the country’s approach to hydrology research significantly. In this paper, the major hydrological research foci supported by the WRC, how these shifted and changed and the internal and external dynamics which have influenced these over the past 50 years are explored. In particular, the shift towards democracy in South Africa and the emergence of IWRM in the 1990’s and their influence on the national hydrological research agenda are considered.