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Briefing to the Portfolio Committee on water and sanitation on Progress Report on the process of Allocation of Water Use licenses in different sectors to advance the developmental needs of south africa. PRESENTATION TITLE Presented by: Name Surname Directorate Date. Ms MA Diedricks
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Briefing to the Portfolio Committee on water and sanitation on Progress Report on the process of Allocation of Water Use licenses in different sectors to advance the developmental needs of south africa PRESENTATION TITLE Presented by: Name Surname Directorate Date Ms MA Diedricks Director – General 05 August 2015
PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Introduction • Overview of Water Use licensing • Water Use Licenses in different Sectors • Current Interventions • Legislative Developments • Support to Resource Poor Farmers • Conclusion
THE NATIONAL WATER ACT, 1998… The National Water Act, 1998 (Act 36 of 1998) was promulgated into law on 1 October 1998. The National Water Act,1998 replaced the Water Act of 1956 The significant difference between the two Acts is that the Water Act of 1956 was based on the riparian principle, legislating water as a private good linked to land ownership, while the National Water Act, 1998 legislating water a public good with the Minister as the custodian of the Nations water resources. The purpose of the National Water Act, 1998 is to ensure that the nation's water resources are protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in ways which take into account amongst other factors - (a) meeting the basic human needs of present and future generations; (b) promoting equitable access to water; (c) redressing the results of past racial and gender discrimination;
…THE NATIONAL WATER ACT, 1998… (d) promoting the efficient, sustainable and beneficial use of water in the public interest; (e) facilitating social and economic development; (f) providing for growing demand for water use; (g) protecting aquatic and associated ecosystems and their biological diversity; (h) reducing and preventing pollution and degradation of water resources; (i) meeting international obligations; (j) promoting dam safety; (k) managing floods and droughts, and for achieving this purpose, to establish suitable institutions and to ensure that they have appropriate community, racial and gender representation.
…THE NATIONAL WATER ACT, 1998… • Section 21 of the National Water Act, 1998 defines the following activities as a water use: (a) taking water from a water resource; (e.g. Irrigation from a dam, river or borehole) (b) storing water; (e.g. Off-Channel Dam or a in stream dam) (c) impeding or diverting the flow of water in a watercourse; (e.g. weir, dam, bridge) (d) engaging in a stream flow reduction activity contemplated in section 36; (e.g. commercial forestry) (e) engaging in a controlled activity identified as such in section 37(1) or declared under section 38(1); (e.g. irrigating with water containing waste) (f) discharging waste or water containing waste into a water resource through a pipe, canal, sewer, sea outfall or other conduit; (g) disposing of waste in a manner which may detrimentally impact on a water resource; (h) disposing in any manner of water which contains waste from, or which has been heated in, any industrial or power generation process;
…THE NATIONAL WATER ACT, 1998 (i) altering the bed, banks, course or characteristics of a watercourse; (j) removing, discharging or disposing of water found underground if it is necessary for the efficient continuation of an activity or for the safety of people; and (k) using water for recreational purposes. • Section 22 of the National Water Act, 1998 provides that a person may only use water - (a) without a licence - (i) if that water use is permissible under Schedule 1; (ii) if that water use is permissible as a continuation of an existing lawful use; or (iii) if that water use is permissible in terms of a general authorisation issued under section 39; (b) if the water use is authorised by a licence under this Act; or (c) if the responsible authority has dispensed with a licence requirement under subsection
THE WATER USE LICENCE APPLICATION SCHEME Assessment INPUTS OUTPUT DWA • Considerations • National Water Act, 1998 • Other Legislation • Specialist Studies (Inputs) • Special Conditions • Comments from I&AP • Application • Application fee • Specialist studies • Other relevant documentation • Decision: • Authorisation or Decline
Water Use Licenses in different Sectors The table below provides the total number of water use licences and volumes of water issued per water use sector
PROGRESS TO DATE • The Department has authorised a total volume of 3.14 billion cubic meters of water to the agricultural sector totaling an expansion of 314 155 ha, at an average of 10 000 m3 per hectare, to the irrigation sector. • The Department has also seen major improvement in the authorization of mine improving from 92 authorizations prior to 2010 to 268 beyond 2010 bringing the total number of mines authorised to 360. • Similar improvements is seen in the Industrial, Local Government and Developments sectors. The industrial sector authorisations have improved from 61 to 152 for the period prior to 2010 to the period after 2010, the Local Government sector from 133 to 340 and developments from 38 to 98 for the same period. • In terms of forestry the Department has authorised the establishment of an additional 766ha of forest from 2001 to date.
ELECTRONIC WATER USE LICENCE APPLICATION AND APPROVAL SYSTEM (E-WULAAS) • The e-WULAAS system will radically transform water use licensing and is to be fully implemented by September 2015; • Flexible and adaptable to any configuration of the business process; • Having all the document suite to support the business decision and therefore obviating the process delays and improving efficiencies; • Providing platform for direct application by the public which reduces the engagement timelines during the initial application stage; • The authorisation process will be transparent and therefore the need to dedicated resources to ensure the smooth implementation of the business process.
ERADICATION OF OUTSTANDING LICENCES • There are currently 1514 un-finalised licence applications which are planned to be completed within 2015/16 financial year; • An action plan is being put in place to pool together the available resources in the Department with the view of finalising outstanding licences within 7 months;
Water Use Licensing Business Process Water Use Licensing Business Process
LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENTS… • The National Development Plan requires regulatory impediments to growth to be urgently addressed; • This called for the regulatory regime for mining authorisations to be streamlined and aligned; • Joint meetings were held during 2013 with the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA) and the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) and it was agreed that legislative amendments to the current legislation, which is administered by the three Department’s should be effected, in order to integrate and align all the time frames and all procedures within the different pieces of legislation; • The joint primary purpose of the above mentioned being for environmental law in mining areas to be applied in a well co-ordinated, structured and synchronised manner, which gives effect to the “one environmental system”; • DWS has as its primary objectives two key aspects: 1. Decreasing the timeframes for processing license applications; and 2. Alignment of the appeal process – to include an internal appeal authority, as both DEA and DMR currently have internal appeal panels; • The agreed time frame for the processing of the respective authorisations is the cumulative period of 300 days and a further 90 days for the internal appeal process.
…LEGISLATIVE DEVELOPMENT • On 2 June 2014 the President assented to the National Environmental Laws Management Act, 2014 (Act 25 of 2014) as well as the National Water Amendment Act, 2014 (Act 27 of 2014) (NWAA); • The two Acts came into operation simultaneously on 2 September 2014; • The NWAA will be given effect to by its corresponding regulations which has been published for public comments and the Department is now considering comments and finalising the Regulations for final gazetting; • Both the NWAA and its Regulations reflect the formal agreement between DWS, DEA and DMR i.e to give effect to “the one environmental system”; and further gives rise to the integrated water use licensing process, with a shortened timeframe and an aligned internal appeals process, which provides for the Minister to serve as the internal appeal authority, who may appoint an appeal panel (as an advisory panel), to assist the Minister with regard to decisions she may take on disputes relating to water use licence applications arising from the new integrated water use licensing process; • The above legislative developments can be construed as a means to a smoother and expeditious licensing process, as well a measure which eradicates some of the problems currently faced with the ineffective and costly nature of the existing independent Water Tribunal, which is currently still in the process of being reconstituted;
SUPPORT TO THE RESOURCES POOR FARMERS (IMPACT OF WATER ALLOCATION REFORM)
Section 61 and 62 of NWA, 1998 permits the Minister to provide financial assistance to Resource Poor Farmers Policy on financial assistance to resource poor irrigation farmers (2004) Regulations on Financial Assistance to Resource Poor Farmers (2007) LEGISLATIVE MANDATE
RPF : OBJECTIVES • To ensure reliable and equitable supply of water for sustainable economic and social development including eradication of poverty. • Promote, support and facilitate the equitable development of agricultural water use by providing financial support to resource poor farmers • To promote food security, improve rural livelihoods and contribute towards poverty alleviation through water-based agricultural activities • Increase profitability of water-based farming systems
CURRENT RPF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PACKAGES 1. Grants on Capital cost on Bulk water distribution Infrastructure • Canal / weir/ pipeline/ main pump stations/ communal storage dam/ water metering 2. Subsidy for Operation and Maintenance of Water Works ,WRM and Depreciation • Phased out in five years • Scaling down by 20% annually 3. Grants on Acquisition of water entitlement for irrigation • Purchasing of water rights for RPF from willing sellers 4. Grants for socio economic viability studies and investigations • Project planning & proposals / technical feasibility studies/ hydrological studies 5. Grants for training of WUA or ALE Management Water Use Efficiency and Management/ dispute management/ technical 6. Grants on Rainwater Harvesting tanks for food security through family food production and other household productive
DWS RPF SUPPORT COMPLEMENTS OTHER GOVERNMENT PROGRAMMES • RPF Programme complement other Government initiatives targeting the development of resource poor farmers such as: • Comprehensive Agricultural Support Programme (CASP) • Micro Agricultural Finance Institute of South Africa (MAFISA) • Land Reform • Interaction mechanism with stakeholders through institutional structures like Coordinating Committee on Agricultural Water (CCAW) is utilised to align these programmes. • CCAW technically engages and recommends projects to be funded by DWS. CCAW is convened and chaired by the Department of Agriculture in each Province.
Through CCAW a resource poor farmer is eligible for financial assistance if the farmer :– is a South African citizen; is a member of Water User Association or DWS approved Legal Entity; is a member of HDI; and has:- agricultural land or access to agricultural land; a water use authorisation, except where application is for the acquisition of water entitlement; and a agricultural water use development needs but is unable to raise finance for that purpose. RPF SELECTION CRITERIA
CONCLUSION • The Department has made good progress in Water Use Licensing. • The Department has responded to the needs of the different sectors in terms of growth and development. • There is ongoing interventions such as the one stop shop being implemented by the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME) to further alleviate regulatory obstacles. • There are ongoing engagements with the different sectors; NEDLAC and other stakeholders to continuously improve our water licensing regulatory regime.
