Résumé
In 1994, South Africa changed its political system from apartheid to democratic regime. In the spirit Act (NWA) was enacted in 1998. One of the purposes of the 1998 NWA was the decentralization of water resource management at most appropriate level. Under the 1998 Water Act, the country was divided into nineteen Water Management Areas (WMAs). One of the WMA created under the 1998 NWA is the Inkomati Water Management Area (IWMA). However, the pace and outcome of the decentralization process in South and in particular in IWMA since 1998 have not been satisfactory to many stakeholders. This study aims to understand the water reform process in Inkomati Water Management Area (IWMA) by evaluating the factors that impact the outcome of decentralization process and performance using a case study approach. Under this method, collected data are compared and contrasted with the hypotheses made in the literature about the impact of selected variables on the river basin decentralization process and performance. The results indicate that the creation of IWMA and its sub catchments and the engagement of river basin stakeholders contribute positively to the creation of a decentralized river basin. However, dependency on donors and government funds, the lack of involvement of basin level organization (ICMA and its sub catchments) in collecting water tariffs, power imbalances among basin stakeholders are limiting factors for the decentralization process and performance. (Résumé d'auteur)