Environment and energy
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Figure 14: Roles and functions of the organs of state in the water regulatory process.
Challenges
Despite the progress, there are still a number of challenges
facing the regulation of water use in the country.
Water use authorisation and compliance
While the DWA has managed to significantly reduce
the backlog in water use licence applications, there is a
challenge in streamlining the process to ensure and maintain
an efficient, equitable, and effective authorisation process
and to prevent a new backlog from developing.
Limited capac ity to ensure compliance with authorisation
conditions has led to high levels of illegal water use, and
pollution from various sources, including from municipal
wastewater treatment works.
There is a major challenge in ensuring the accurate and
up-to-date capturing of water use information on the Water
Registration Management System.
Validation and verification, which is necessary to provide an
accurate database of water use to support regulation, is not
yet completed and is proving to be a slow and resource-
intensive process. While compulsory licensing has been
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completed in three catchments, the overall process has been
slow and is resource intensive and complex.
A large percentage of water use is authorised as existing
lawful use in terms of the previous Water Act (1956), and is
not subject to the same conditions that would be applied if
this water use was licensed in terms of the NWA.
Illegal water abstractions, especially by irrigation farmers
present serious problems.
Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a major source of pollution that
results from water use practices that were allowed when
less stringent conditions were imposed on mine discharges
prior to promulgation of the NWA. However, AMD offers an
opportunity in that it can become a valuable additional water
resource if properly treated and managed. The proposed
mining of gas using hydraulic fracturing techniques, referred
to as fracking, can bring enormous economic benefits to
South Africa. However, hydraulic fracturing is said to pose
a threat to groundwater and to the environment, which has
sparked calls for strict regulation. This may entail declaring
fracking a controlled activity in terms of the NWA. Exploration
is currently on shale and coal. PA
May 2017 Volume 23 I Number 3