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An integral part of the development of the water resource management strategies, and a key requirement of the
NWA
[PDF
- 980 KB]is the participation of stakeholders and the devolution of water resource management to catchment level. Thus in support of this principle, an intensive stakeholder engagement process has been developed as part of the water resource management studies on the integrated Vaal River System to get buy-in of water users and to ensure stakeholders eventually take ownership of the implementation of the strategies.
In this regard an integrated stakeholder engagement process was adopted which consolidated the participation processes of the IWQMP Study, the WCWDM Study and the Large Bulk Water Supply Reconciliation Strategy for the Vaal River System.
- This was done to eliminate stakeholder fatigue, ensure more effective and efficient study management of all three studies from DWA’s perspective and to ensure an optimal implementation of the study outcomes. The stakeholder engagement process has been designed to run parallel with the technical processes.
However, following on from the March 2006 project steering committee (PSC) meetings, stakeholders requested that the above process be revised to reduce the number of stakeholder meetings as many members of the PSC would also be the designated representatives at the stakeholder meetings. DWA took heed of the request and the following revised process was adopted for the remainder of the studies. The process now has additional newsletters and a fact sheet as opposed to the remaining two stakeholder meetings as can be seen in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Proposed Stakeholder engagement process
Identification of stakeholders
The identification of stakeholders in the Vaal River System
will be an ongoing process, refined throughout the process
as on-the-ground understanding of affected stakeholders
improves through interaction with various stakeholders in
the area. Some of the stakeholders categories included in
the database include:
- National and provincial government departments.
- Water Services Authorities and Local Municipalities.
- Water Services Providers.
- Organised agriculture.
- Water users associations.
- Industry and mining.
- Business and commerce.
- Environmental bodies, both as authorities and NGOs.
- Catchment management forums.
Pre-consultation meeting
A pre-consultation meeting was held on 29 July 2005 with
representatives of leading water institutions in the System.
The purpose of the meeting was to clarify some issues
between the parties and to establish a common
understanding on issues that need to be addressed.
Stakeholders’ meetings
The first stakeholder meeting was held on 11 November 2005, in Kroonstad, Free State Province. Two further stakeholder meetings were proposed for 2007, however PSC members requested that these not be held as the same members attend both meetings.
The purpose of the stakeholder meeting was to:
- Inform stakeholders about the project and rationale behind the four studies that are taking place in the Vaal River System.
- Afford stakeholders an opportunity to nominate representatives for the two proposed Project Steering Committees (PSCs) – one combined committee for the Reconciliation and WC&WDM studies and another for the IWQMP.
Public meeting
A public meeting will be held at the end of the study in 2007.
The purpose of the meeting would be to present to the
general public the outcomes of the study.
On-going consultation with stakeholders
Stakeholders will continue to be informed of progress with the study through a newsletter and a fact sheet and they will be asked for their inputs on an ongoing basis. All interested and affected parties on the distribution list will receive a personalised letter to report on progress to date, to thank those who commented to date, and to outline the next steps in the process.
Stakeholders are invited to participate in the process by contributing information at meetings and workshops, or by corresponding with the Public Participation Office or the technical team at:
Rachelle Seymore/Solly Manyaka
Zitholele Consulting (Pty) Ltd
PO Box 6002
Halfway House, 1685
Tel: (011) 254 4901
Fax: (011) 805 2100
E-mail:
rachelles@zitholele.co.za
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