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in any premise at any reasonable time. A legal framework can only be effective if it is enforced. Every municipality should have a trained group of people who inspect water services and plumbing installations to ensure that these comply with both national and local legislation. This is currently not the case, as municipalities do not have appointed water inspector.
SANS 10252 and SANS 10254 are not written in the format of SANS 10400. Both need to be rewritten into SANS 10400 in order to be part and parcel of the building regulation set. This will de facto provide building control officers with the mandate and platform to enforce it.
In one hand, it may not be a bad thing that South Africa has no direct language in the national building codes referring to RWH. This has enabled, over the past decades, local governments to regulate more freely. On the other hand, it faces serious challenges with respect to monitoring compliance with and enforcing contraventions of these bylaws due to the fact that they do not have the capacity to enforce them.
Nevertheless, it is evident that the enabling environment or the general legal framework of national, provincial and municipal policies, legislations and regulations; as well as the institutional arrangements of RWH are lacking behind. The question still remains of whether or not RWH has to be regulated and to which levels it should be regulated.
To permit the expansion of RWH in rural and remote areas that still rely on reservoirs, pools, stagnant waters, and rivers as their primary water source, the practice should remain largely unregulated. Largely, because both isolated and dual RWH systems, there must be compliance to the relevant chapters of SANS 10400.
The users have to understand that the water harvested cannot be used for domestic consumption without prior treatment, using the appropriate household’ s water treatment technology. Dual-mode rainwater harvesting system, where the water harvested is to be integrated with an existing reticulated system to ensure the perennial supply for non-potable and potable uses, have to be regulated.
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS Institutions are commonly defined as the‘ rules of the game’, including norms, beliefs, values, habits, and behaviour. They include both formal and informal arrangements, ranging from local to global level, and may give rise to compliance or resistance. The lack of a national umbrella body to coordinate RWH continues to hamper its expansion and makes the collaboration between the various players very difficult. These comprise non-governmental organisation and
In terms of design and construction, RWH infrastructure must be consistent with the National Building Regulations’( NBR) SANS 10400.
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www. plumbingafrica. co. za January 2018 Volume 23 I Number 11