## 2 Materials and Methods  
### Description of Study Area  
The study area is located in Greater Giyani Municipality (Mopani District) in the Limpopo Province (Figure 1). Greater Giyani is a rural municipality which has a single semi-urban area, Giyani town, with a population of 256,300 exhibiting a slight tendency to decline mainly due to migration to cities [51]. A large number of rural settlements are scattered and not easily accessible as the road conditions are bad and this has implications for economic activities in the municipality. The climate is summer rainfall sub-tropical, with an average annual temperature ranging from 18 \({}^{\circ}\)C to 28 \({}^{\circ}\)C. The area receives between 200 and 450 mm a\({}^{-1}\) of rainfall, predominantly during summer (from October to March), strongly influenced by topography along the west-east gradient. The study area is located between the perennial Great Letaba River and the non-perennial Molototsi River that flows occasionally a few times per year. The village of Muyexe is located in the Shingwedzi catchment (Figure 1). The land use/cover is predominantly thicket/dense bush (mopani trees), woodland/open bush, grassland, cultivated  
Figure 1: Topography map of the study area and location of 9 case study sites. subsistence land and urban settlements (villages). The main economic activities are agriculture (citrus, mango and tomatoes), tomato processing (secondary sector) and eco-tourism (tertiary sector) [52]. A large part of the catchment consists of arable land with subsistence farming dominating over commercial farming. The geomorphic features of the study area include low mountains of the Great Escarpment (to the west), undulating and irregular plains, hills and lowlands (Lowveld towards the east). The area is at the interface between the granitic-greenstone of the KaapVaal Craton and the metamorphic (predominantly gneiss rocks, but also schist) of the Southern Marginal zone of the Limpopo Mobile Belt [53]. Groundwater is typically retained in fractured rock aquifers (regional groundwater) and alluvial aquifers along river courses. The estimated groundwater use is 30-40% of groundwater recharge [52]. Borehole yields are moderate to high, typically around 2 L\(\cdot\)s\({}^{-1}\). Limited groundwater development may be feasible in the Molototsi catchment, given groundwater is abstracted below harvest potential, groundwater yields and quality are reasonable and groundwater contributes little to baseflow [52]. The largest user of the available water resources is irrigation, while other significant users include forestry and rural domestic. Mopani District is the water service authority through an agreement for water service provision with the Department of Water and Sanitation. Water sources within the Mopani District are streams, wells and boreholes, with most water supply depending on dam capacity. Besides dams, infrastructure includes reservoirs, reticulation networks, especially in urban areas, street-taps and borehole pumps. However, the current water supply infrastructure in Greater Giyani Municipality is inadequate because villages are sparse, which makes it difficult and expensive to provide a reticulation system [54], coupled with the increased demand for water in villages, where 42.83% of the households do not have access to water supply and 33.8% do not have access to electricity. Sanitation is also a major problem, which also contributes to health hazards and groundwater pollution. Pit latirines are used by 45.5% of the population and 74.9% have no sanitation facilities at all [51]. A service level agreement between the district and local municipalities results in a complex relationship for the provision of water. The two entities together provide free basic water to households with subsidies for the diesel and electricity for pumping water to the communities. The population is relatively evenly distributed throughout the study area, living both in urban areas (Giyani and Tzaneen) and in informal rural villages and settlements.