“The importance of the strategy, especially the allocation and the equity components … caused a delay,” Sirenya said, adding that he hoped it would finally be approved year-end.

In the meantime, a decision had been made to move ahead with establishing nine catchment management agencies (CMAs) to manage the catchment areas already unveiled by Department of Water Affairs Minister Edna Molewa.

“This has been received with excitement in the water sector as evidence of the Minister’s commitment to driving full implementation of the National Water Act and ensuring that the nation’s water resources are used sustainably. The establishment of CMAs will enable the promotion of equity through more effective water resources management and greater responsiveness to the needs of the poor and marginalised communities arising from the closer links with stakeholder groups in the water management areas,” said Sirenya.

The two existing CMA’s, the Nkomati and Breede Overberg, would be aligned with the new system.

The department was also making progress in dealing with the water use licence application backlog, which grew substantially with the implementation of the National Water Act, which required new categories of activities to apply for licences. At the time, “the capacity in the Department of Water Affairs was not ready for it . . . and a significant backlog resulted,” Sirenya said.

However, the 2010 project initiated to reduce the build-up had been successful and he expected that “within the next three months” it would be eradicated.

In future, new methods would also be looked at in order to streamline the application process. “A restructuring exercise is currently taking place . . . and one of the main objectives is to create the required capacity to consider water use licences.”

Regional offices and the CMAs will be capacitated to consider applications, with only licenses of national or international importance to be considered from Pretoria.

Also speaking at the event, Molewa said that her department was also looking at potentially integrating applications for water use licences with other applications, such as those for environmental–impact assessment authorisations and even mining licence applications. Discussions were under way with the Department of Mineral Resources on the matter.

Source: Engineering News

Website: www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/draft-of-delayed-water-resources-review-by-september-says-dg-2012-05-07

Author: Jean McKenzie

Date: 7 May 2012

The Rand Water Academy would be launched at the 2012 Water Institute of Southern Africa Conference, in Cape Town this week.

The academy would initially cater for the critical skills issues within Rand Water and then for the skills challenges that affect the South African water and sanitation sector, as well as on the continent.

At a later stage, it would incorporate various other models that include technology development, research platforms and the establishment of centres of competence and excellence.

“Rand Water envisages that the academy will develop into an entity that will drive the capacitation and professionalisation of engineers, artisans, process controllers, scientists, accountants and future leaders,” the utility stated.

Research and development would also be undertaken at the academy, a platform through which it intended to increase the number of rated researchers within the water sector.

Rand Water said it would adopt the National Research Foundation criteria for researcher ratings in the various research themes.

Source: Engineering News

Website: www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/rand-water-to-launch-skills-academy-2012-05-07

Author: Engineering News

Date: 7 May 2012

The assessment says the risk of water issues causing wars in the next 10 years is minimal even as they create tensions within and between states and threaten to disrupt national and global food markets. But beyond 2022, it says the use of water as a weapon of war or a tool of terrorism will become more likely, particularly in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa.

The report is based on a classified National Intelligence Estimate on water security, which was requested by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and completed last fall.

It says floods, scarce and poor quality water, combined with poverty, social tension, poor leadership and weak governments will contribute to instability that could lead the failure of numerous states.

Those elements “will likely increase the risk of instability and state failure, exacerbate regional tensions, and distract countries from working with the United States on important policy objectives,” said the report, to be released at a State Department event commemorating World Water Day.

At the event Thursday, Clinton is to unveil a new US Water Partnership that aims to share American water management expertise with the rest of the world.

“We assess that a water-related state-on-state conflict is unlikely during the next 10 years,” the report said, noting that in the past countries have tried to resolve water issues through negotiation.

Water as lever

“However, we judge that as water shortages become more acute beyond the next 10 years, water in shared basins will increasingly be used as leverage; the use of water as a weapon or to further terrorist objectives, also will become more likely beyond 10 years.”

The report predicts that upstream nations – more powerful than their downstream neighbours due to geography – will limit access to water for political reasons and that countries will regulate internal supplies to suppress separatist movements and dissident populations.

At the same time, terrorists and rogue states may target or threaten to target water-related infrastructure like dams and reservoirs more frequently. Even if attacks do not occur or are only partially successful, the report said “the fear of massive floods or loss of water resources would alarm the public and cause governments to take costly measures to protect the water infrastructure.”

The unclassified summary of the intelligence estimate does not identify the specific countries most at risk. But it notes that the study focused on several specific rivers and water basins.

Those included the Nile in Egypt, Sudan and nations further south, the Tigris and Euphrates in Iraq and the greater Middle East, the Mekong in China and Southeast Asia, the Jordan that separates Israel from the Palestinian territories, the Indus and the Brahmaputra in India and South Asia as well as the Amu Darya in Central Asia.

Source: Yahoo News

Website: http://news.yahoo.com/us-intel-water-cause-war-coming-decades-124621169.html

Author: Matthew Lee

Date: 23 March 2012

In Koukamma and Ikwezi she went as far as singling the water out as “not at all” safe.

“The unsatisfactory performance of Koukamma is reflected . noting the need for urgent overall improvement,” said Molewa.

The municipalities in question provide water to towns including Jansenville, Waterford, Clarkson, Sanddrif, Stormsrivier and Woodlands. Risks to the water include high microbiological failure and a lack of commitment to respond to the problem, such as water treatment or the need for disinfectants.

Nationally, another 13 municipalities have been red-flagged as having unsafe drinking water, with five in Mpumalanga being the highest for a province. However, Molewa was insistent that on the whole South Africa’s water was safe.

“I am pleased that, through our efforts, South Africa’s tap water remains the best in the world and we are one of only a handful of countries where you can drink water directly from the tap.”

She said the report showed that the overall national drinking water compliance figure was 98.93%.

Ekurhuleni came out with the highest scorecard of 98.95%, closely followed by Johannesburg with 98.92%. The top 10 included municipalities in Western Cape, North West and KwaZulu-Natal.

Mpumalanga and Northern Cape received the lowest rating with an overall 60.9% and 68.2% respectively.

Of the total 153 water services sampled, 98 received Blue Drop Award status. To qualify for this, municipalities needed to ensure they scored above 95% in adhering to the requirements of and compliance with the SA Bureau of Standards.

Requirements included risk management, personnel skills, management commitment and infrastructure.

Molewa said particular mention needed to be made of Victor Kanye local municipality, formerly Delmas, and Thembisile local municipality in Mpumalanga for scores that had improved “astonishingly” as a result of changes in the approach to management.

Source: Sowetan Live

Website: www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/2012/05/08/water-unsafe-in-two-regions-of-eastern-cape

Author: Denise Williams Parliamentary Correspondent

Date: 8 May 2012

Releasing the 2012 Blue Drop report during the Water Institute of Southern Africa Conference at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Molewa said 98 municipalities were this year awarded Blue Status, up from 66 last year.

The average national Blue Status score jumped from 72.9% last year to 87.6% this year.

The scores have increased year-by-year since the first Blue Drop report was released in 2009, when municipalities notched up a national average of 51.4%.

In all, 153 of South Africa’s 287 municipalities and 931 water systems were audited for this year’s report.

Molewa stressed that just because a municipality was not awarded Blue Drop status, did not mean that their water remained unfit for human consumption.

This is because Blue Drop certification goes beyond the quality of drinking water to include aspects such as risk management, operations and asset management of water services.

The programme is not a voluntary programme but an incentive-based regulatory initiative which requires water services institutions to provide information in line with the legislative requirements of Section 62 of the Water Services Act.

The top scorers
In this year’s Blue Drop report, Ekurhuleni came out as the top scoring municipality – with a score of 98.95%, followed by the City of Johannesburg with 98.92% and Mogale City with 98.79%.

Ethekweni, Tlokwe in the North West and the City of Cape Town were the next highest scoring municipalities, respectively.

Molewa commended the Victor Kanye Local Municipality (formerly Delmas), in Mpumalanga, which increased its score from 18.26% last year to 80.07% this year.

She also congratulated the Thembisile Local Municipality, also in Mpumalanga, which increased its score from 27.77% to 78.30%.

However, Molewa said she was concerned about the worst scoring municipality – Koukamma (5.6%) – and iKwezi (7.9%) both in the Eastern Cape, which are among 15 municipalities that have received warnings over the quality of their water.

“Communities have been informed not to drink the tap water without improving the quality first by either boiling or using other methods of purification,” she said, adding that her department was working closely with these municipalities to bring the water quality up to standard.

Private sector involvement is key
Molewa said despite the 15 warnings, her department now knew where the problems were and would be attending to them.

Helgard Muller, acting Deputy Director-General of Policy and Regulation at the department, said the involvement of water boards and the private sector were key to improving the management of water services.

While other countries which had water audits, only looked at the quality of water, the Department of Environmental and Water Affairs also considered risk management and asset management in the Blue Drop report.

Of the 98 municipalities that achieved Blue Drop certification, 38 were serviced by water boards and about 20 by the private sector.

The top performing province is Gauteng – with a score of 98.1%, followed by the Western Cape (94.2%) and KwaZulu-Natal (92.9%), respectively.

The remaining six provinces all notched up scores below that of the national average of 87.6% – with Mpumalanga ranked as the worst performing province at 60.9%, followed by Northern Cape (68.2%).

Source: BizCommunity

Website: www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/524/74769.html

Date: 8 May 2012