The synthesised paper covers the following topics: (a) availability of water, of acceptable quality, in South Africa (water resource assessment); (b) reconciling water availability with future socio-economic and environmental demands for water, water being key to South Africa"s ongoing growth and development; (c) appropriate water resource development and augmentation options; (d) learning to accommodate climate variability, climate change and extreme climate events in water resource management, given the potential impacts and associated uncertainties; (e) overcoming governance constraints to effective integrated water resource management; and (f) Capacity constraints that need to be overcome.