Policy Agricultural Water: Availability and Distribution

1
Policy Agricultural Water Availability and
Distribution

• Mr. A. Matukane
• Chief Director Limpopo Region
• Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
• 29 November 2007

2
Outline

• Background to National Water Act
• Overview of water availability is South Africa
• Types of water use authorisations
• Water Allocation Reform (WAR)
• Bread Based Black Economic Empowerment Guideline
  (BBBEE)
• Financial Assistance to Resource Poor Farmers

3
Background to National Water Act, 1998 (NWA)

• Recognizes that water is scarce and unevenly
  distributed
• Sustainability and equity of water provision
• All water in South Africa belongs to the nations
  as a whole not individuals local level
• Establishment of Water Management Institutions
  Catchments Management Agency and Water User
  Association (CMAs/WUAs)
• Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (Dwaf)
  as custodian of the water resources in South
  Africa
• Previous Water Act, 1956
• Water attached to land
• Ownership of water by land holders/ Riparian
  rights mostly white farmers benefited
• This has been replaced with entitlement to use
  water in terms of National Water Act, 1998

4
Overview of water availability

• South Africa is semi-arid with average rainfall
  of 470 mm/a, well below the worlds average of
  840 mm/a
• Natural availability of water in South Africa is
  also uneven and this is compounded by poor
  rainfall patterns
• Irrigation sector uses 61 as stated in the of
  the total water use in SA (For food sanity and
  sustainable livelihood)
• Water requirements already exceeded the yield in
  10 out of 19 WMA in the year 2000
• This has resulted in the large scale transfer of
  water across the catchments and hence putting
  tremendous strain on Water Resources Development

5
water use authorisations

• Schedule 1 - use of water for basic household
  needs
• E.g. gardening, drinking, bathing
• No need for a licence or registration of water
  use
• General Authorisation
• Conditions attached to use thereof
• No need for a licence but need to register the
  water use
• Existing Lawful Use
• Allowed in terms of 1956 Water Act to continue
• Registration of water use is required
• All existing water users will have to apply for a
  licence when compulsory licensing is introduced
• Licences
• Issued by DWAF for large usage of water e.g.
  industries, mines etc.
• License issued with conditions to protect the
  water resource
• Validity of license given

6
Delegations of Functions

• Decentralisation of functions to regions/CMA
• Especially for low to medium impacts activities
• This will results in reduction of processing time
  of licences
• Currently the National Office is giving support
  to Regions
• In future National Office will play an auditing
  policy development oversight functions

7
Water Allocation Reform (WAR)

• A way of sharing limited resource
• This is done through compulsary licensing
• Compulsory licensing is a mechanism created in
  the NWA to allow DWAF to review all water use in
  a catchment to reallocate water if necessary
• Benefit of compulsory licensing
• Water shared fairly, HDI and women has a fair
  chance to benefit from using water

8
BROAD BASED BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
Guideline

• As a matter of policy, no application for water
  authorisation from historically disadvantage
  individual shall be turned down for reasons of
  non-availability of water in catchments
• Unless all avenues to make water available have
  been exhausted. These include
• Curbing of illegal water use
• Introduction of WC/WD management measures
• Compulsory licensing
• Evaluation Criteria
• Phase 1 Critical Criteria/pre-requisites - those
  aspects that, if not met in full, will
  automatically disqualify the application)
  Historically disadvantage individual land, use
  water for economic purpose
• Phase 2 General Criteria bidders that best
  meet the requirements will be authorised based on
  availability of water

9
Financial Assistance to Resource Poor Farmers

• For development of sustainable irrigation schemes
  or revitalisation of existing one if resources
  are available
• Promotes initial access to irrigated agriculture
  for resource poor farmers in terms of Sec 61 62
  of the NWA 1998
• Applications channeled through Provincial
  Coordinating Committees on Agricultural Water Use
  (CCAW), then to Regional Office and approval in
  Head Office

10
Financial Assistance to Resource Poor Farmers
(cont.)

• The grants caters for amongst others on
• Operations and maintenance
• Acquisition of water entitlement
• Capital cost for construction/upgrading of scheme
• Grants will be allocated as per the Regulations
  on financial Assistance to Resource Poor Farmers,
  2007(see documents attached)
• Resource Poor Farmers Procedure
• Preparation of proposal as per DWAF Profoma
  Projec Proposal ( attached)
• Filling of applicable forms to be provided by
  DWAF
• Completed forms to be submitted to Regional
  Office, then Regional Office forward to Head
  Office

11
Thank You.