Portfolio Committee: Public Hearings on Water Quality and Water Security Presentation by DWAF June 2

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Portfolio Committee Public Hearings on Water
Quality and Water SecurityPresentation by
DWAFJune 2006
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Content of presentation

• Overview of current situation
• Policy and legislative environment/goals w.r.t
• surface and groundwater protection, partnerships
  between government and communities dam safety
  and security
• Research and data countrywide WQ monitoring
  network and resource allocation on research
• Technology transfer and technical assistance
• Volunteerism in WQ protection
• Improvement on dissemination of information on
  WQ,
• Health and education plans on WQ

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Overview of current DWQ situation

• While good quality water is reticulated in the
  metropolitan areas and bigger municipalities,
  there are areas where the quality of drinking
  water is not up to standard.
• Reported reasons for failure
• Lack of understanding requirements for effective
  DWQM.
• Inadequate management incl. monitoring of
  drinking water quality
• Inadequate Asset Management
• Inadequate Institutional Capacity
• Lack of interventions to address poor DWQ.

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Overview of current WQ situation

• Raw surface water in mining and agricultural
  areas compromised by eutrophication, pH, and
  chloride, sulphate and salinity issues, which
  challenge the effectiveness of older treatment
  technologies.
• Sporadic outbreaks of water related illnesses
  occur where inadequate operational monitoring and
  lack of corrective measures fail to ensure a safe
  drinking water supply, meeting the requirements
  of SANS 241 and the Water Services Act.

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Overview of surface water resource quality
situation

• Of 186 monitored rivers, their ecological (not
  domestic) health condition varies from (a) 1.6,
  (natural), (b) 26.6, (good), (c) 42.8 (fair)
  and (d) 29 (poor).
• More than 50 of large dams in SA are seriously
  impacted by eutrophication, monitored currently
  in 17 WMAs
• Microbial indicator monitoring currently in 15
  WMAs
• The high salinity mainly in agricultural areas,
  is monitored in 950 sampling points.

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Overview of groundwater quality situation

• Groundwater quality largely follows seasonal
  trend good 2005-2006 rainfall season in the
  summer rainfall regions of SA, groundwater still
  largely of good quality
• In winter rainfall regions, especially Western
  Cape, no/little groundwater recharge occurred in
  the last 4 6 years - negative trend in
  groundwater quality may result in future.
• Cases where the groundwater quality could be
  impacted in the long-term, eg rewatering of gold
  and coal mining areas (Gauteng). Water use
  (discharging) authorization process is addressing
  this issue i.t.o. treatment but some areas
  (i.e.Western Gold Mining Basin) are decanting and
  pose threat to surface water.
• Some concerns around local (rural) groundwater
  resources where proper treatment of grey water is
  a concern.
• Impact of poor sanitation on groundwater is a
  concern

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Legislative Framework for DWQM/R

• Constitution
• Right of access to sufficient water implies
  quality
• Strategic Framework for Water Services Annex 2
  give Water Quality as one of the key performance
  indicators for the sector.
• Water Services Act
• Regulation 5 under Section 9 of Water Services
  Act of 1997 WSA must
• Have a sampling programme
• Must compare results to SANS 0241
• Must respond to failure in quality
• National Standard for Drinking Water Quality,
  SANS 02412005, is favorable according to WHO
  Guidelines and quite on par with other
  international standards.

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Legislative framework for resource quality
protection

• Constitution environment not harmful to health
  or well-being
• National Water Act protection of water
  resources
• The Reserve
• Classification of water resources

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Legislative framework for resource quality
protection

• Linkages with source control
• General authorisations
• Water Use Authorisations
• License conditions
• Monitoring
• Compliance and enforcement

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Legislative framework for resource quality
protection

• Documents developed with stakeholder input
• 3 examples
• Visioning guideline enables communities to
  participate in setting of vision to protect water
  resources
• Guideline Establishment and management of
  Catchment forums
• Model developed to set Resource Water Quality
  Objectives

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Legislative framework for dam safety and security

• National Key Points major dams
• Dam safety legislation administered by DWAF
• Dept of Transport responsible for vehicles on
  dams eg boat safety and regulation
• DWAF to promulgate regulations this year on dam
  safety
• Looking at public safety at dams not just
  traditional dam safety

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Research, data and monitoring network
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Monitoring must be USER centric
Information Generation and Dissemination
Data Storage and Management
Data Acquisition
Information users
Programme 1
Programme 2
Programme n
IT Infrastructure (H/W, S/W, Applications)
Design
Operation
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Resource Quality Monitoring
Systems
Activities
WMS
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Technology transfer and technical assistance

• Main assistance is to local government
• Project Consolidate
• SAICE project of deploying engineers
• Training and capacity building for councillors
  and officials
• NCWSTI provides training in water services
  functions
• Guidelines, minimum standards etc

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DWQ Intervention

• DWAF strives to respond to all drinking water
  quality failures reported (via reporting
  mechanisms consumer complaints media reports,
  etc)
• Some successful interventions were Makhado (LP)
  Bloemhof Vryburg (NW) Tshwane
  Bronkhorstspruit (GP) Machadodorp (MP)
• Successful intervention is dependant on credible
  and frequent DWQ information feeds.

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Volunteerism in water quality protection

• Communities
• Catchment Management Forums eg on the Jukskei,
  bring various stakeholders together to find
  common solutions to water quality issues
• Adopt a river programme, linked to river health
  programme
• Schools programmes

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Improved information dissemination
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Drinking water quality information

• The DWQ survey of 2005 indicated that only 58 of
  municipalities are monitoring Drinking Water
  Quality. In 2006, 85 claimed to be monitoring.
• The implementation of the DWQ Regulation system
  will replace the annual DWQ survey and more
  reliable information will then be available.
• DWQM Systems have been implemented in the Free
  State Western Cape and parts of the Eastern Cape
  and Kwa Zulu.
• Project has been extended to provide the Local
  DWQ Management system to all provinces.

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Drinking Water Quality Regulation Information Flow
100 Completion Target Date 1 April 2007
WSA DWQMS (X176)
Annual Report
Compliance Monitoring
Operational Monitoring
Water Services Performance Measurement System
DWAF National DWQ Regulation System
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DWQ Regulation Initiatives
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Water Safety Plans

• As guided by the World Health Organization's
  Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality, WSAs will
  be encouraged to developed Water Safety Plans.
• The objective of these plans is to ensure that an
  Authority caters and plans for the safeness of
  drinking water from source to consumer.
• The Basis for these plans have been laid with the
  development of the DWQ Management Framework for
  South Africa.
• Water Research Commission has commenced with an
  initiative to develop a model water safety plan.

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Surface and groundwater quality information
dissemination

• Information freely available from Information
  Officers in DWAF (HO and RO)
• WQ Communication strategy developed
• Several documents, posters, videos, brochures
  developed and widely distributed at forums well
  received by stakeholders
• Communication Framework updated with input from
  stakeholder survey to determine communication
  needs

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Health and education plans

• Schools
• Water Education Programme 2020
• Part of this programme is an Intervention Project
• Scholars are encouraged to identify water related
  problems (incl. Drinking Water Quality problems)
• A plan of action is then drawn up with the help
  of Water Quality Specialist.
• Sanitation
• DWAF, DOE, DOH, WSAs, developed a Health and
  Hygiene Strategy
• will be submitted for approval to DGs of DWAF and
  Health by mid July 2006
• DWAF initiated and led the partnership and
  buy-in with Dept of Housing and DoH in securing
  a team of PSPs to train
• District Health Managers to ensure the
  decentralization of HH education and support
  accelerated sanitation delivery (Training planned
  for 26-30 June)
• Sanitation practitioners and Environmental Health
  Practitioners at WSA level

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Thank you
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