Abstract
M.Sc. (Aquatic Health)
The purpose of this study was to develop a suite of checklists that could be used to audit rural land-users within a catchment to determine their impacts on the water resources and in doing so, also audit their legal compliance. The need for this was in response to the ongoing deterioration of South Africa’s water resources. The legislation pertaining to water use and water protection and certain best practice guidelines were used as the base of these checklists. The key legislation was the National Water Act (36 of 1998), National Environmental Management Act (107 of 1998), and the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act (43 of 1983) and the regulations emerging from these Acts pertaining to water use and protection.
Checklists were drawn up for the main land-uses: Agriculture, Commercial Plantation Forestry, Aquaculture and General Land-Use (e.g. recreation and tourism, rural settlements). A set of eight (8) checklists were collated to cover all of the impacts likely to occur in a catchment, namely: Vegetation removal and clearing; Pollution; Alien invasive plants; Alien fauna; Mining (small scale); Water abstraction; Storing water (reservoirs and weirs), and Watercourse crossings.
These checklists were field tested by carrying out an audit of an aquaculture facility (Trova Trout) and commercial plantation forestry (Komatiland Forests) within the Upper Sabie River Catchment, above the town of Sabie. These two land uses scored 46% and 49 % respectively through the audit system, and numerous legal non-conformances were noted. Audit report templates were also generated in order to capture the audit results for comparison over time. Results for Trova Trout were presented in such a formal audit report.
Abstraction of water from the Sabie River without metering, development within riparian zones and the impact of hundreds of watercourse crossings in the catchment emerged as some of the issues as a result of the audit.
It was concluded that the tools developed were suitable for auditing land-users within a catchment, and served to expose the impacts on water resources. Some case studies were investigated and it is clear that water related offences are not yet fully acknowledged as serious crimes by South Africans. As a result, recommendations included the establishment of special Environmental Courts, building the capacity of the Environmental Management Inspectorate and implementing pro-active auditing programmes within catchments.