Adoption of an integrated water governance system to address the drought-flood challenges in Mthatha, Eastern Cape

The policy problem in Mthatha arises from fragmented institutional responses to hydro-climatic extremes. The policy framework rightly identifies mandates that are shared among various sectors and institutions, which often work in silos despite pursuing common long-term water security goals. However, drought and flood management continue to be treated as separate hazards, despite empirical evidence demonstrating that both emerge from the same rainfall variability dynamics.