Title
Balancing Use and Protection of Water Resources: Democratizing Water Management in South Africa
Publication Date
4-9-2007
Abstract
The South African Water Resource Classification System (WRCS), which is required by the National Water Act (NWA), is a set of guidelines and procedures for determining the different classes of water resources. The regulations that prescribe the WRCS provide for a definition of the classes that are to be used (Minimally Used, Moderately Used and Heavily Used) and a 7-step procedure to be followed to recommend a class. The class outlines those attributes that the regulator and society require of different water resources. The WRCS is used in a consultative process (i.e. the Classification Process) to classify water resources to help facilitate a balance between protection and use of the water resources, i.e. to recommend a class. The economic, social and ecological implications of choosing a class are established and communicated to all Interested and Affected Parties during the Classification Process. The class describes the desired condition of the resource, and concomitantly, the degree to which it can be utilized. This means the class must describe the volume, distribution and quality of the Reserve and resource quality objectives, and inform the determination of the allocatable portion of a water resource for use. This has considerable economic, social and ecological implications, and hence the WRCS is an integral component of the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) environment, as it is fundamentally linked to other processes in the integrated planning of water resource protection, development and utilization, and in the management and control of water use. A key component of the Classification Process is therefore an iterative process of evaluating scenarios with stakeholders where the economic, social and ecological trade-offs will be made, and out of which will emerge the allocation schedule, class, Reserve, resource quality objectives and the catchment management strategy. The development of the WRCS was therefore designed to align with the NWA which calls for the efficient, equitable and sustainable use of the Nation’s water resources, and national government’s Accelerated and Shared Growth-South Africa strategy that takes the position that without interventions targeted at reducing South Africa’s historical inequalities, growth is unsustainable. In the context of IWRM, this involves allocating water for historic redress as a legal imperative, and contributing to eliminating the second economy. An optimal balance is therefore required that maximizes societal welfare and effectively deals with the core issues of redressing historical inequality and reducing poverty. This balance requires trading-off the value of water as a direct input to economic production and, for example, the costs associated with the use of the resource to dissipate waste, the socio-economic costs of environmental damages, and the potential health risks and cost that overuse, stream flow reduction activities and dry land agriculture may have on other users.