Transcript National Water Resources Strategy-2

National Water Resources
Strategy-2
Comments from the SA Water Caucus,
24 October 2012
Parliamentary Portfolio Committee
Water and Environment
Who is SA Water Caucus?
• Network of more than 20 CSOs, NGOs, trade
unions and activists
• Founded in lead up to World Summit on
Sustainable Development
• Provincial caucuses in Western Cape,
Mpumalanga, KZN, Free State, Limpopo,
Gauteng, Eastern Cape
• A civil society voice in policy and
implementation
History
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Large dams
NWRS-1
Water Dialogues
Prepaid meters, cut-offs and tricklers
Water quality, green drop, industrial pollution
CSO regulation group met regularly
Water Leadership Group
Water quality affects the most
vulnerable
Process for NWRS-2
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Met on 16 and 17 Aug 2012
Input by DWA officials
Provincial discussions
Water Sector Leadership Group 16 October
Wants to participate
View on NWRS-2
• Welcome emphasis on democratic
developmental state
• Welcome idea of active citizens who shape
developmental state
• Water resources belong to the people
• State is custodian and regulator, NWRS
describes the strategy
• Active citizens can support strategy
Active citizens supporting Green Drop
in Rietspruit
Power of NWRS-2
• Framework for protection, use, development,
conservation, management and control of
water reosurces
• Binding on all implementing National Water
Act, 1998
• Only 4% of DWA officials knew about NWRS-1
• NWRS-2 should be known outside water
sector too
Difficult process
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3 years late
Various teams worked on it
Lack of co-operation within DWA?
Political framing of democratising water
governance and technical planning still
separate
• Early consultations with big water users, are
they water custodians?
How pro-poor is NWRS?
• People-centred language is used
• We need to check if technical strategies are
people-centred and pro-poor
• Saying people “benefitting directly and
indirectly” raises questions
• Ecological and social reserve must remain the
first priority
• Polluter pays principle must remain in force
Currently economy does not operate
within ecological limits
• Acid mine drainage on goldbelt and 1000s of
abandoned mines on coalfields: nearby
communities and the public pay the bills
• Not convinced that new mines have water
licences and rehabilitation funds
• Fracking is another such disaster in the making
• Clear commitment need to “no go areas”,
Ekangala grasslands, Mapungubwe
• Water footprints should be calculated
Make participation real
• Welcome emphasis on participation, but make it
real
• 9 CMAs are far from people – so local catchment
management forums need to be strengthened
• Include marginalised communities, make their
participation easy
• Give forums teeth – e.g. consider water use
license properly, DWA should follow up
complaints based on local knowledge
• Also builds culture of co-operation
An explanation that makes it easy to
know who is polluting
Jack's WWTW
urban sewage
25 years old
disinfects using Cl5ML/d
biological pebble bed filters
Pebble Stream
Headwater
stream flow 1Ml/d to 6Ml/d
Mike's Gold Co.
55 years old
marginal mine
dewaters 10 Ml/d
refinery on site (2Ml/d)
2 x 75ha slimes dams
not vegetated
1500 m --
P1
1000 m -P2
P3
500 m -12 km's
5 km's
Participation in practice
• Fund travel to support civil society and
community participation
• Translate into people’s languages
• Simplify technical language, and support
NGOs who build capacity for governance
• Proper notice of meetings, accessible venues
• Access to documents e.g. Enviro Monitoring
Plans, mining licences, rehabilation funds
transparent
Ensure Water Demand Management is
pro-poor
• Example of technical strategy at risk of
discriminating against the poor
• NWRS must specify requirements to contain
municipal water losses
• Water leaks programmes, climate change
proofing can create jobs
• Encourage rainwater harvesting
Re-allocate water resources
• Stronger voices of communities and small
farmers in allocation decisions
• We welcome statement that commercial
farmers’ savings to be reallocated to rural
women, but reallocation should go beyond
just these savings
Strengthen civil society voices
• Sustainable business principles or sustainable
development principles?
• Engaging civil society on equal footing to
private sector
• UN CEO Mandate and SA Strategic Water
Partners Network have privilegted access
• Support those who strengthen civil society
• Rural dwellers feel alienated
Climate change is real
• NWRS-2 too little on climate change
• It’s a reality and needs to be factored in pro-actively
• Water sector should take its carbon footprint into account –
energy for waste water treatment and not recovering
resources like nutrients, paradigm shift needed
• Water and energy issues need to be considered together:
desalination energy intensive, coal mining threat to water,
fracking
• Desalination has high carbon footpring and is last resort
• Technologies for waste water treatment, cement use,
should
Algal ponding system for climate
change and resource recovery
Restrict timber plantations
• Plantations have high water requirements
• Threaten grasslands and wetlands, which are
water spunges, and grasslands species
• Do not expand plantations
• Do not export this model to our neighbours,
such as Mozambique
NWRS-2 needs commitment
• NWRS-2 should be a living document
• DWA should play role as sector leader
• Water needs to be put at the centre of decision
making
• DWA should be a strong regulator – for example
fight to protect water resources against sharp
mining practices
• DWA should go beyond green drop to deal with
pollution from municipal waste water works
Water is politically important
• Water services are always part of social
protests
• Marikana is example – it happened on the day
of our caucus meeting
• Poor living conditions and services in informal
settlement, including water and sanitaiton
• Competition of water uses prejudice the poor
• Water Caucus would like to support
consultation process