Validation and verification of lawful water use in South Africa: An overview of the process in the KwaZulu-Natal Province

Abstract

South Africa is a water-stressed country which has, over the years, strived to adopt a rational, just and equitable way to manage this limited resource. The National Water Act (Act No.36 of 1998) (NWA) provides the legal framework to achieve this objective. Since 2003, the government embarked on a national process to: validate (confirm the quantum of), and; verify (establish the lawfulness of) water uses that exceed domestic requirements. The objective of the project was to determine how much water is allocated for: (1) existing lawful use in accordance with specific requirements of the NWA, and; (2) current water uses. The project identified users with or without registered use entitlements, whether claims for registered uses were correct, underestimated , overestimated or false; and confirmed the lawfulness of each water use in accordance with water legislation that pre-dated the NWA. The process included identifying land and non-land based water uses (industrial, mining and bulk potable water supplies, irrigation, crop types and impoundments) using remote sensing (RS) techniques for both a qualifying (defined as two years before the enactment of the NWA) and the current periods. Crop irrigation requirements were estimated using the South African Procedure for estimating irrigation WATer requirements (SAPWAT), while the Gush curves were used to quantify Stream Flow Reduction Activities (SFRAs) due to commercially afforested areas. The boundaries of farm reservoirs were delineated from RS and the volumes calculated using a regression approach. Estimates of the irrigation water requirements, SFRAs and reservoir volumes formed the basis for interaction between the Department of Water and Sanitation and water users to confirm their uses; and subsequently, to update the Water Authorisation and Registration Management System (WARMS), a database of water users. While WARMS indicated a total of approximately 16 000 registered users in the KwaZulu-Natal province, up to 6000 additional water users, mostly currently unregistered, are expected to be registered in the updated database. Despite certain project methodology challenges and limitations, the project forms a critical basis for all other aspects of water management, informs macro- and micro-water resource planning, water allocation reform, as well as water use compliance, monitoring and enforcement.