Report of the Portfolio Committee on Water and Environmental Affairs on the Water Institute of Southern Africa Conference (WISA) 20 July 2010

1. Introduction

A holistic focus on water issues is central to sustainable development and poverty reduction agendas. Members of the committee attended this conference in Durban on 18 – 21 April 2010 to achieve a greater understanding of the current issues in the field of water and sanitation. The conference comprised water service specialists, business and academia and the members gained knowledge that was current and relevant to the strategic objectives of the work of the committee.

2. Objectives of the Conference

The aim of the conference was to provide a platform for:

· Discussions amongst sector policy makers, water sector professions, government departments, state entities, civil society, educational and research institutions on issues related to integration, application of scientific engineering, knowledge and skills in water sector management.

3. Keynote Address by Deputy Minister Ms Mabudhafatsi

Water is high on the global agenda because it is key to social and economic development, and therefore also important on the South African agenda. All sectors are dependent on water. The Industrial Policy for South Africa also recognises the importance of water in its economic sense.

Although South Africa has not done well in achieving the Millennium Development Goals of halving the backlogs by 2015, it has succeeded in providing water and sanitation to many poor households by 2005. However, there are still people without clean and potable water, therefore service delivery efforts need to be increased to ensure universal access.

The following challenges confront the water sector:

• Water security involves diligent planning, and management of the water cycle including the effects of climate change and monitoring. Scarce water resources impacts on social and economic development. This requires water use efficiency and water demand management at all levels, as well as the re-use of water, including getting people aware of water conservation as a way of life.
• The poor quality of the water resources impacts on our environment, the quality of life and the economy. Various interventions were undertaken including the Local Government Turnaround Strategy, the Wastewater Treatment Plants Intervention Programme, improved monitoring and auditing.
• Acid mine drainage remains a worrying factor. There is a need for appropriate long term solutions to effectively control and manage this, including smart technologies, improved governance and sector accountability, ownership and commitment.
• Due to ageing infrastructure, most completed projects are not functional or rather water is not coming out of the taps due to ageing infrastructure and other technical problems.

There is a need to reflect on how to speed up water delivery for consumption, poverty alleviation and economic development. A realistic reflection will be achieved only if delegates were honest about the challenges faced by the sector, not wasting time pointing fingers, and by being defensive. It was important to reach a consensus about the sector challenges and that should be used as a means for future planning and turnaround strategy.

4. Presentation of Research Papers

4.1 Water quality management as key component of catchment management – Mr P Wiechers

This paper focused on wastewater quality management as a key component of catchment management. This concept illustrated three catchments namely, the Vaal River, the Mvoti to Mzimkulu River and the Great and Little Lotus rivers catchments. It also covered various aspects ranging from wastewater quality management, policies, legislation and enforcement, as well as the variety of catchments management practices. The presentation also highlighted lessons learnt and proposals for future priorities and needs for optimizing wastewater quality management.

There are currently 19 water management areas in South Africa. The establishment is stipulated in the National Water Act by the creation of catchment management areas. The Department of Water Affairs is primary responsible to ensure water quality management of the authorities under it and ensuring effective management, which included the following aspects namely:

• Continuous improvement of water quality management.
• Being proactive, dynamic, efficient and effective in its delivery of Water Quality Management services to the public.
• Providing the necessary policies and systems to ensure integrated sustainable management of water quality.
• Promoting cooperative governance across all spheres of government in terms of Water Quality Management.
• Ensuring a fully capacitated, loyal workforce to support the DWA WQM functions.

In order to ensure efficient and effective Water Quality Management, the following initiatives were proposed:

· Prevention of waste production and pollution of water resources wherever possible.

· Minimisation of pollution at source by minimising unavoidable waste production through: recycling/reuse of waste or water containing waste; detoxifying; neutralisation; and/ or treatment of waste streams; and/or introduction of cleaner technologies and best management practices ("housekeeping").

· Disposal of waste and/or discharge of water containing waste according to the precautionary principle. If there were no alternatives to the disposal of waste and/or the discharge of water containing waste, the precautionary principle applies.

After the Department of Water Affairs had conducted assessment studies on waste water quality management at a provincial level, the department was dissatisfied with the performance of wastewater quality management in all nine provinces.

Treated effluent discharges from sewage works and industrial wastewater treatment works had an impact on the quality of water in the receiving environment. Therefore, it was imperative for relevant authorities to closely monitor the impact posed by these discharges, to in order, ensure compliance with discharge standards. Furthermore, long term trends need to be observed to ensure that there was no significant deterioration of the receiving water over the long term. Although the immediate impact may not be significant, deterioration was foreseen over the longer term. With the global economic recession, local authorities and industries were increasingly under stress to maintain the required discharge effluent quality standards.

The presentation also highlighted challenges and opportunities posed by catchment management in South Africa, which include:

• A need for more integration in water and wastewater services, for example, catchment management could be linked with: land use; fresh water demand minimization, and, wastewater reuse.
• Technical catchment management solutions should inform catchment committees’ choices, for example, with decisions on land-use changes, and by creating multiple land-use opportunities.
• Catchment management should critically address social and institutional processes operative in the catchment.
• Long-term sustainability for urban catchment management can be assured by linking with quality-of life considerations, such as the provision of recreational amenities, conservation and restoration.

Following the studies conducted in the four catchment areas, the following findings were presented:

The Vaal River Catchment

In the catchments along the Bloemhof Dam, effluents from urban, industrial and mining activities have resulted in high levels of salinity of the Vaal River, whilst in the lower catchment, irrigation return flows are the major contributor to river salinity. Furthermore, water pollution has resulted in a significant change in physico-chemical conditions in the river water. Sewage discharge destroyed the river's ecosystem. An environmental organisation known as, Eco-Care Trust, had committed to the conservation of fish in the river.

Mvoti-uMzimkhulu River Catchments

Problems experienced in Mvoti- uMzimkhulu were related to industrial water pollution. High levels of chemical poisons were reported in the Mvoti River near KwaDukuza/Stanger, which resulted in an immediate banning on fishing activities, swimming or drinking water near the Sappi paper mill. A multi-national pulp and paper company advised fishermen not to eat any fish or other marine creatures from the river mouth until further tests have been conducted. The company also acknowledged that some of the pollutants had the potential to cause cancer and endocrine system health problems in humans and animals, depending on the dose and duration of exposure.

Great and Little Lotus River Catchments

The Great Lotus catchment has a population of about 380 000 people. Approximately 24% reside in informal settlements, while 4% live in informal housing in the site and service areas. The informal population of the Greater Lotus River catchment is growing especially rapidly, due to its desirable location near to job opportunities, and large areas of "municipal open space". The Great Lotus River is characterized by poor water quality, with high nutrient loading, as well as very high faecal coliform counts. This is due to raw sewage effluent overflowing from blocked sewers into the storm water drains, occasional sewer pump overflows, as well as the inadequate or non-existent sanitation characteristic of the informal settlement areas. Despite recent efforts by the local authorities at sewer upgrading, the microbial counts in the storm water do not appear to be dropping.

4.2. Municipal Regulatory Performance Management Systems (RMPS) Water Services Compliance Assessment, by Department of Water Affairs

As the custodian of the nation’s water resources and water sector leader, the objective of the Department of Water Affairs is to improve water management in the country. Local government is responsible for delivery of water services to householders and regulation of water services authorities. Therefore, the role of the Department is to regulate, monitor, evaluate, report and publish performance of water services authorities. It is against this background that the department introduced the National Water Services Regulation Strategy in 2008, in order to elucidate actual activities and performance. This meant that a performance mechanism or tool had to be developed, known as the Regulatory Performance Measurement System (RPMS), which is a regulatory initiative (such as the Blue Drop/Green Drop). It is intended to measure water services authorities on 11 key performance indicators that were initially developed in the Strategic Framework for Water Services (DWAF 2003) and expanded in the NWSRS and is being currently rolled out in the nine regions in order to promote best practice in the sector.

The objectives of the systems are as follows:

• Improve business practice in relation to water services delivery in local government.
• Improve local government compliance with national standards and norms.
• Improve DWA regulatory processes through ensuring that response to non compliance are standardised across the country.
• Ensure that data collected from municipalities is verifiable, accurate and useful so that it can benefit local government through strategic feedback on problem areas.

4.2.1 Data collection process

The data collected during the first implementation phase of the system in 2007/8 financial year, followed a bottom up approach whereby RPMS workshops were held in the five regions, namely Northern Cape, Limpopo, Gauteng, Western Cape and Free State with water services authorities. Data sheets accompanied by manuals were distributed to the municipalities prior to the workshop.

In 2008/9, a similar process was followed. It should be noted that the following challenges were noted:

• Responses from the water services authorities were slow in some instances, and deadlines had to be extended.
• While significant progress has been made in some regions, overall, consistency remains a problem owing to high turnover of staff at both regional offices and more particularly at WSAs.
• Continuity is a key aspect of annual measurement, and it is important that effective handover processes are in place for managing the system at the regional office, and interacting with the system at WSAs.
• Most WSAs are unable to supply the data, which will allow the measurement of their non revenue water – which, given the emphasis on climate change and the fact that millions of South Africans currently do not have access to water and sanitation, is a major potential area of improvement.

In conclusion, although the RPMS was in its infancy as a system, some significant results have already been achieved.

4.3. Progress on the Haartbeespoort Dam Integrated Biological Remedial Programme, Mr Venter

The programme was introduced by the Department of Water Affairs to address the imbalances and unhealthy biological conditions in the dam. Due to eutrophication that results in hypertrophic conditions in the dam, the dam was under severe pressure. The programme comprises 25 main projects and 18 sub projects. To date, the following initiatives have been implemented, and these include:

Biomass (Algae and Hyacinth)

• Pumps were installed in the dam that allows for the removal of algae into allocated downstream areas of the dam wall. In addition, floating algal booms have been installed at various locations, namely, Oberon, Westlake and the mouth of Saartjies to prevent further movement of algae.
• Hyacinth was removed manually. There were currently 46 local previously disadvantaged people employed on the contract basis to increase employment numbers around the area. Training has been provided on the use of pumping equipment, as well as on health and safety.
• Concerns were raised over huge amounts of litter flowing into the dam, which hindered the removal of hyacinth.
• To date, approximately 100 tons of compost has been produced from algae; the compost will be used for soil rehabilitation, implementation of artificial wetlands and shoreline vegetation establishment.

Food web restructuring

A fish harvesting project focusing on the fishing of coarse fish in the dam has been implemented. Madibeng Conservancy Holdings was contracted in 2009 to harvest the averages required to catch up with the backlogs and reach target figures by the end of March 2009. The only challenge of this project was to secure contractors, equipment, and loss of netting. The agreed average of fish harvest per month is 3.7 tons of fish per week. Should the contractor fail to meet this average, the population of coarse fish would increase. This would impact on the remedial efforts already made. The projects managers were investing in other cost effective electro-shocker options for the project.

Sediment removal

The DWA Team conducted sediment contour surveys of the dam. Preliminary indications confirmed that the phosphate amounts were between 1500-2000 tons. This implies that close to 10-years worth of nutrients were trapped in the dam. The utilisation of these sediments once removed, were currently being investigated and discussions were being held with surrounding farmers and mines within Haartbeespoort Dam area with regards to implementation of various projects at various sites. It has been discovered that the sludge has a potential to assist the remediation of the mines. There were also discussions with the mining sector to determine the potential use for the recovered sediments which may include soil care, mine tailings dams rehabilitation, compost production and landfill.

4.5. Workshop on the Review of the National Water Resources Strategy; Ms Gwala

The purpose of the workshop was to obtain inputs from the delegates when reviewing the second edition of the strategy. The first strategy was developed in 2004. According to the National Water Act, it is stipulated that the strategy should reviewed every five years.

To date, the following achievements since the implementation of the first strategy have been achieved namely;

• Equitable access to water and benefits.
• Development of water resources infrastructure.
• Forecasting and balancing of water demand and supply.
• Efficient and effective water use through the establishment of water management institutions such as catchment agencies and water user associations.

The department envisaged having the strategy completed in the coming 18 months. Various stakeholders participated in the review, including technical experts, policy makers, and local government. High level strategic workshops and meetings will be held in five provinces. A project steering committee and project management has been established. The review will assess the extent to which the alignment of water resources and water services provision activities has been streamlined. It will also address the gaps identified in the first strategy.

A communication strategy will also be developed in order to create an understanding of what the revision of the strategy entails. This will also communicate the importance of the revision and its role in terms of integrated water resources management and associated benefits.

With regards to the implementation plan of the strategy, the department will allocate responsibilities for the implementation of the strategy to different line functions within the department. The funding will be allocated over a period of five years. This will be followed by the introduction of a performance management framework with appropriate indicators.

5. Conclusion

The knowledge gained was current and relevant to the strategic objectives of the committee.