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 In Terms
of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (Act No. 108 of 1996) the
management of Water Resources is an exclusive National competency. As such the
National Water Act, 1998 (Act No. 36 of 1998) mandates the Minister of Water Affairs
and Forestry to ensure that water is protected, used, developed, conserved, managed
and controlled in a sustainable and equitable manner for the benefit of all persons.
The Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, supported by the Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry, acts as the public trustee of the nation's water resources.
Within the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, the Directorate Water Quality
Management and the various Regional Offices are jointly responsible for the
governance of Water Quality in South Africa.
| In achieving our vision, mission and
objectives, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's Water Quality
Management function believes in the following values towards: |
OUR
CUSTOMERS |
OUR
EMPLOYEES |
THE PUBLIC AND THE ENVIRONMENT |
CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE |
INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT |
THE DEVELOPMENT OF POLICY AND SYSTEMS |
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT |
Ensure a
unified sense of direction both in internal and external institutions.
Foster mutual respect.
Provide appropriate capacity and
resources.
Strive towards service
excellence.
Practice fair, consistent and
transparent decision-making.
Ensure just
administrative action.
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Build
Trust.
Promote individual responsibility
and accountability.
Nurture, skill and build
appropriate capacity.
Advocate respect.
Strive to ensure job
satisfaction.
Reward superior performance.
Ensure openness and transparency.
Involve employees in
decision-making.
Optimise personnel development
and career pathing.
Create an environment that is
conducive to optimum employee performance.
Embrace the principles of equity
in all management practices.
Fairness in disciplinary action |
Improve
quality of life.
Ensure that economic development
does not compromise the right of communities to an environment that is not
harmful to their health and well-being.
Demonstrate commitment to users'
needs and those of the environment. |
Promote Co-
operation.
Speak as one government, with one
voice.
Promote respect
and recognition of others.
Respect others'
mandates.
Promote
integrated environmental management.
Understand the
business of others.
Influence
consideration of our goals, by others. |
Manage water
resources judiciously on a sustainable basis.
Ensure fitness
for water use of our water resources.
Subscribe to source, resource,
and remediation directed measures in decision-making
Authorise water
use sustainably.
Consider for
resource directed measures in decision-making.
Ensure
accuracy.
Work towards
synergism (integrated and segregated) in water resource management on a
catchment basis. |
Develop
appropriate, achievable and easily implementable policy and systems.
Provide simple,
efficient and effective procedures and guidelines.
Ensure a high
quality product.
Adopt a total
systems approach to water resource management in the development of policy. |
Continuously
improve and evaluate the performance of the Department's Water Quality
Management function.
Keep track of
development outside of the Department's Water Quality Management Function.
Strive to enable the
customer to allow independent implementation
Continuous
devolution of tasks to implementing agencies/agents.
Timeous
application of corrective action. |
TRANSFORMATION:
Race, Responsiveness,
Restructuring, Representivity,
Respect. |
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's Water Quality Management
Function in South Africa strives to-
- Ensure the continuous improvement of Water Quality Management;
- Become a recognized world leader in Water Quality Management;
- Be proactive, dynamic, efficient and effective in its delivery of services to
the public;
- Provide the necessary policies and systems to ensure integrated sustainable
management of water quality;
- Promote cooperative governance across all spheres of management; and
- Ensure a fully capacitated, loyal workforce to support its functions.
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's Water Quality Management
Function's mission is:
"To ensure the integrated sustainable management of the water quality of the
water resources of South Africa".
The Department of Water Affairs and Forestry's Water Quality Management
Function's Main Objectives are to:
- Plan and develop (or revise) point-source, implement and administer diffuse
source, remediation and resource directed integrated water quality management
policies, strategies, procedures, guidelines, methodologies, regulations and
criteria;
- Build capacity internally and externally;
- Provide specialist technical and strategic support;
- Consider authorisations;
- Monitor, and audit the implementation of the said policy;
- Manage Water Quality Management related information;
- Promote transparent decision-taking through Co-operative Governance and
participative management;
- Ensure the integrated sustainable management of the water quality of the water
resources of South Africa through the application of Source Directed Controls
(SDCs which includes Remediation Directed Measures, for all sources of water
pollution that eliminate from land, and Resource Directed Measures (RDM), which
includes Remediation Directed Measures; and
- Ensure fitness for use of South Africa's surface water, groundwater and
estuarine water for all user sectors, which include: Agriculture; Domestic;
Industry; Recreation; as well as the Aquatic ecosystems.
 PREVENTION
OF POLLUTION
Prevent waste production and pollution of water resources wherever possible.
"Prevention is better than cure"
- MINIMISATION OF POLLUTION AT SOURCE
Minimise unavoidable waste production through:
- Recycling/ Re-use of waste or water containing waste;
- Detoxifying;
- Neutralisation; and/ or
- Treatment of waste streams; and/ or
- Introduction of cleaner technologies and best management practices
("Housekeeping" ).
- DISPOSAL OF WASTE AND/ OR DISCHARGE OF WATER CONTAINING WASTE ACCORDING TO
THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE
If there exists no alternatives to the disposal of waste and/ or the discharge
of water containing waste, the precautionary principle applies.
In the instance of the discharge of water
containing waste, the Waste Discharge Standards, as set by the Department of
Water Affairs and Forestry (currently the General, Special and Special
Standards for Phosphate), applies as the minimum requirement.
In the instance of the disposal of waste, the
Minimum Requirements for waste disposal, as set by the Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry, applies as the minimum requirement.
(Such disposal of waste and/ or discharge of water containing waste will only
be allowed if the receiving environment has the capacity to assimilate the
additional waste load.)
- DISPOSAL OF WASTE AND/ OR DISCHARGE OF WATER CONTAINING WASTE ACCORDING TO
THE DIFFERENTIATED APPROACH
If the minimum requirements, mentioned above, are
insufficient to ensure the fitness for use of the receiving water environment,
stricter standards will be enforced in accordance with the differentiated
approach.
Relaxation from compliance with the minimum
requirements, mentioned above, will only as a last resort be considered if the
receiving environment has the capacity to assimilate the additional waste load.
Relaxation would have to be justified on the basis of technology, economic and
socio-political considerations.
The differentiated approach takes account of
catchment specific conditions and includes the determination of Resource Quality
Objectives (RQOs), Resource Water Quality Objectives (RWQOs) and the setting of
standards that must ensure compliance to both RQOs and RWQOs. The levels at
which the above in-stream objectives will be set, will be determined through the
application of a Management Classification System for the particular water
resource.
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