|
Four water resource
management studies are being conducted by the Department. The studies are: 1) the Development of
Large Bulk Water Supply Reconciliation
Strategies, 2) Water Conservation and
Water Demand Management Potential
Assessment, 3) Integrated Water Quality
Management Plan and 4) Continuous Studies - Phase 3.
Development of Large Bulk Water Supply Reconciliation Strategies
The options for further augmentation of water supply by the
development of physical infrastructure are limited. Therefore,
long term planning is essential to maintain a balance
between water availability and water requirements.
The aim with this study is to develop strategies for meeting
the growing water requirements of the industrial and urban
sectors served by the Integrated Vaal River System. The
study will:
- Update the current and future urban and agricultural
water requirements.
- Assess the water resources and existing infrastructure.
- Take into account the Reserve requirements for
alternative classifications.
- Formulate reconciliation interventions, both structural and
administrative/regulatory.
Water Conservation and Water Demand Management Potential Assessment (WC&WDM)
What is WC&WDM?
Water Demand Management (WDM) is defined as: The
adaptation and implementation of a strategy or a programme
by a water institution or consumer to influence the water
demand and usage of water in order to meet any of the
following objectives: economic efficiency, social
development, social equity, environmental protection,
sustainability of water supply and services and political
acceptability.
On the other hand, Water Conservation is defined as: the
minimization of loss or waste, the care and protection of
water resources and the efficient and effective use thereof.
Link between WC and WDM
A potential difference between WC and WDM
is that WC focuses on the efficiency of water
resources whereas WDM focuses on achieving
the most beneficial solution to water supply
from various perspectives, including social and
economic considerations.
illustrates
various types of WC measures in the whole
water supply chain.
Rationale for WC&WDM
The management of water resources and the
provision of water services in South Africa call
for a new approach in which WC&WDM play
an important role in ensuring environmental
sustainability, socio-economic equity and
efficiency.
The WC&WDM provides a strategic approach
to optimise the use of resources by focusing
on three key development issues namely,
economic efficiency; ecological sustainability
and social equity. The WC&WDM supports the
Department’s mission statement in the
following ways:
- It plays a leading role in ensuring the
conservation of our water resources in an
integrated fashion.
- It supports catchment management
agencies (CMAs) to ensure the
management of the country’s water
resources.
- Assist the departmental water services in
ensuring that water services are provided
in an efficient, cost-effective and
sustainable manner.
- Provides a leadership role in ensuring that
the people of South Africa are educated in
ways to manage, conserve and sustain
the country’s water resources.
Focus area of the study
According to the
Internal Strategic Perspective
(ISP)
for the
Vaal River System, as developed by DWAF (2004) the
growth rate of the projected water requirements is low and
the impact of even small savings through WC&WDM could
result in a substantial postponement of the date
augmentation would be required.
Therefore, the WC&WDM study is undertaken with the aim to
develop a system-wide plan of how WC&WDM will be
implemented and what the impacts will be. The key to this
study lies in collating information from the water users on
planned WC&WDM measures and compile scenarios of
water requirement and return flow for planning purposes.
The five main focus area of the study entails the following
aspects:
- Detailed investigations into the potential for reconciling
current and future requirements in the system through
selection and implementation of sector specific
WC&WDM strategies.
- Making more effective and efficient use of existing and
available water resources in all water sectors.
- Conserving water with an aim of avoiding or delaying
further construction of augmentation schemes.
- Assessing the impacts of WC&WDM on cost recovery
with respect to the economic impacts on Local
Authorities and Service Providers.
- Assessing the current and planned WC&WDM
measures with a purpose of developing reliable
estimates of the savings that can be expected.
Figure 3: Water Conservation activities throughout the water
supply chain.
The Development of an Integrated Water Quality Management Plan (IWQMP)
Background to the IWQM
The approach to water resource protection in the
NWA
[PDF
- 980 KB] includes consideration of water quantity and water quality.
Water quality management deals with source control which
includes point sources (such as discharges from sewage
treatment works or industrial sites) and diffuse sources (such
as settlements without a sewerage system) of pollution by
discharges of waste or water containing waste into water
resources. WQM also has a resource management
component and remediation component that considers the requirements of the resource and the users that make use of the resource as they require water quality that is fit for respective users.
Decisions about the nature and extent of water quality
impacts on the water resource which can be permitted, are
guided by a hierarchical decision-making framework, which
takes account of the balance between the need to protect
water resources for sustainable use, and the need to allow
water-impacting activities in order to support social and
economic development.
The highest priority in the decision-making framework is to
prevent degradation of water resources through waste
prevention and reduction, recovery, treatment and final safe
disposal. It is however acknowledged that in many cases the
discharge of wastes and water containing wastes into water
resources is unavoidable, and in these cases the emphasis
is on minimising the impacts and its effects on water
resources. Where water use has already caused degradation
of water resources, or where contaminated land areas pose
a threat to water quality, improvements - remediation - will be
effected where it is necessary and practical.
Approach to IWQMP
Much of the emphasis in water resource management has
revolved around ensuring that users have sufficient
quantities of water. However, as more water gets used and
re-used, as quantities get scarce and feedback loops get
even tighter, it is quality that begins to take on a dominant
role.
The main objective of this study is to develop management
measures to maintain and improve the water quality in the
Vaal River System for the planning period up to the year
2025. The proposed approach for the development of the
IWQMP will involve:
- The definition of integrated and balanced Water Quality
Objectives (WQOs) that will maintain or improve the
systems water quality, using as a point of departure the
existing WQOs.
- Establishing how the system complies with the WQOs,
which will be determined through analysis of available
data and undertaking modelling of possible future
scenarios.
- Identifying and developing proposed management
measures that will improve the non-compliance cases
and utilise the allocatable assimilative capacity to the
benefit of the water users in the system. The
management measures will be evaluated on the basis of
their technical, environmental (range of aspects), social
and economic feasibility.
Continuous Studies - Phase 3
The Vaal River runs through the economic heartland of
South Africa whose demand for water has long exceeded the
exploitable potential of the system. To meet the extensive
water demands, a complex system of reservoirs, pumping
schemes, diversion weirs and inter-basin transfer schemes
are developed. The main objectives of this study are to:
- Provide technical support to the water resource
managers of the Vaal River System consisting of a
range of activities, including and relating to system
analysis and water resource managment.
- Development of water resource management strategies
and procedures for the reconciliation of water
requirments and water resource availability over the
short term.
- Provide project management support and assistance in
a range of aspects to ensure effective planning and
implementation of water resource management in the
Integrated Vaal River System.
|