FEATURES
67 identified between water resources management and water services provision where streamlining and integration are required, as follows:
• Strategy and planning: Aligning strategies and planning for water resources management and the provision of water services, particularly in respect of the links between the catchment management strategies required by the Act and the water services development plans required by the WSA.
• Water use regulation: Co-ordinating the common regulatory and audit functions for water resources management and water services, including monitoring and managing compliance with the conditions of water use.
• Implementation: Promoting partnerships for developing and managing water resources infrastructure, and implementing interventions in, for instance, water quality management and water demand management.
• Institutional support: Sharing capacity for empowering, co-ordinating and supporting water management and water services institutions, and transferring functions to them.
• Information management and communications: Integrating or linking information systems and technology, and co-ordinating communication with external stakeholders and partners.
Furthermore, the Act contains specific requirements for water resources management activities to support the provision of water services. These are discussed below.
a. Water services development plans Section 9 of the Act requires catchment management strategies to take account of the development plans prepared in terms of the WSA. All metropolitan and district municipalities, all of which are designated as water services authorities, and any local municipalities authorised to fulfil the role of a water services authority, must prepare water services development plans in terms of the WSA. These plans form part of the Integrated Development Plans that municipalities must prepare in terms of the Municipal Systems Act, 2000( Act No. 32 of 2000).
A water services development plan will be a responsible authority’ s principal source of information for determining water allocations to a municipality and issuing a licence. The plan’ s requirements must be accounted for in the responsible authority’ s catchment management strategy. Some of the data in water services development plans will be incorporated into the national water resources information system and will therefore contribute to national water resources planning. The plans should also contain details of water demand management and conservation measures, and contingency plans for waterrelated disasters.
For its part, when preparing its water services development plan, a water services authority must refer to the relevant catchment management strategy for information about the availability of water to support proposed water services targets, the source of the water, and the requirements for the quality of wastewater that is to be returned to the water resource after use.
b. Regulations under the Water Services Act Section 6( 1)( a)( ii) of the Act requires the strategies in the NWRS to support the achievement of compulsory national standards prescribed under section 9( 1) of the WSA. The regulations prescribe standards for a range of water services issues. The main relationships between the regulations and requirements for water resources management are as follows:
• Basic sanitation: The design of sanitation facilities must take account of the potential for polluting water resources, especially with regard to groundwater.
• Basic water supply: Basic human needs are included in the reserve described in the NWRS.
• Quality of potable water: The quality of water in rivers, dams and groundwater aquifers has a direct impact on the costs incurred by water services institutions when treating water to prescribed standards.
• Control of objectionable substances and disposal of grey water: The Act provides for the establishment of standards for the discharge of waste or water containing waste into a water resource by regulation, and provides for the inclusion of these standards in the conditions attached to licences and general authorisations.
• Use of effluent: The use of effluent for irrigation or to recharge a groundwater aquifer is a controlled activity under section 37 of the Act and must be authorised by a responsible authority.
• Quantity and quality of industrial effluent discharged into a sewerage system: The capacity of sewage treatment works to meet their licence conditions under the Act will influence the type of effluent the water services institution can accept into its sewers.
• Water services audit, water and effluent balance analysis and the determination of water losses; the repair of leaks; measurement or control of water supplied; pressure in reticulation system; and reporting of non-compliance: These relate to the requirements of the water conservation and water demand management strategy for the domestic sector.
c. Water services tariffs Section 56 of the Act requires that the pricing strategy for water use charges support the establishment of tariffs by water services authorities. Continued on page 69 >> www. plumbingafrica. co. za April 2017 Volume 23 I Number 2