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Portfolio Committee on Water Portfolio Committee on Water Affairs and ForestryAffairs and Forestry

National Water Act ReviewNational Water Act Review22 October 200822 October 2008

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ContentContent

1. The Reserve2. Skills Development3. Water Quality4. Resource Availability5. Water Pricing6. Catchment Management Strategy 7. Water Use Licensing8. Existing Lawful Use9. Emergency Situations

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The implementation of the Reserve must be sustainable and not impact economic growth

Implementation of the Reserve in certain catchments could trigger further augmentation schemes if existing users are curtailed

DWAF indicates that there will be a pragmatic approach to the Reserve implementation

Recommendations:Need checks and balances to the processFull understanding required for the full economic

consequences especially for an industry like power generation

The ReserveThe Reserve

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Skills DevelopmentSkills Development

Recommendation• The quality, adequacy and retention of skills should be a

priority area for the water sector and collaborative and co-operative action in this regard may lead to innovative solutions and the National Water Act needs to provide impetus to the area of skills development

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Water QualityWater Quality

• Water quality impacts on Eskom’s water use have the potential to negatively impact Eskom’s water use performance and at times may require large investments in mitigating this impact

Recommendation:• Implementation of the Waste Discharge Charge System

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Resource AvailabilityResource Availability

• Two key influencing factors that impact on resource availability and water requirement is land use and climate change which is not specifically mentioned under the contents of the National Water Resource Strategy (September 2004)

Recommendation:• The NWRS needs to focus on the refinement and

communication of climate-change, scenarios, projections, information and data as well as the identification and quantification of climate-change impacts and the adaptation and mitigation strategies

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• Water pricing and the methodologies adopted should accurately reflect the cost of the supply of water and should be simple, transparent and unambiguous whilst ensuring the financial sustainability of the water utilities/institutions providing the service

Recommendation:• Need a robust regulatory framework that supports the

tenants of the National Water Act

Water PricingWater Pricing

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Catchment Management StrategyCatchment Management Strategy

• Only two CMA’s established to date• The development of Catchment Management Strategies

are dependent on the establishment of CMA’s

Recommendation:• Catchment management strategies must be developed by

the Responsible Authority in absence of the CMA or the delegated functions

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Water Use LicensingWater Use Licensing

• Technically there is no ‘abstraction water use’ from a Government owned water scheme- abstraction reference point is directly from resource

Recommendations:To amend the Act to:• To provide for ‘authorization’ to extend ‘abstraction’ to

mean from a Government Water Works being defined as inclusive of the set of pipes and pumps associated with the dam or sets of dams

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Existing Lawful UseExisting Lawful Use

• The definition of existing lawful use of water is not very clear

• In the case of power stations the current understanding is that all abstraction water uses are lawful but Eskom could probably make a case for all water uses at the power stations to be existing lawful uses

Recommendation• The NWA needs to define existing lawful use to mean the

abstraction use only and not the various water uses within the power station

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Emergency SituationsEmergency Situations

• “67. (1) In an emergency situation, or in cases of extreme urgency involving the safety of humans or property or the protection of a water resource or the environment, the Minister may…”

Recommendation• “In an emergency situation, or an emergency nature in

the national interest or in cases of extreme urgency involving the health and safety of humans or property or the protection of a water resource or the environment, the Minister may …”

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Thank you