The WaterSOURCE Toolkit is designed to support South African municipalities in strengthening water security by adopting practical, context-responsive and circular water management approaches. It recognises that municipalities across the country operate under widely differing climatic, socioeconomic and institutional conditions. For this reason, the toolkit is grounded in a comparative methodology that draws on municipal archetypes. These archetypes capture common patterns in climate, settlement type and financial capacity, ensuring the guidance reflects the realities of a coastal or inland metro as much as those of a rural town in an arid landscape.