African Water Development Report 2006 - United Nations Economic ...

African Water Development Report 2006According to Caponera D (1988), the legalframework must include:(a) Ownership of or other legal authority forwater resources, covering surface water,groundwater and all other water resources;(b) Distinguishing between private and publicownerships. The latter can also be subdividedinto national, regional or local as andwhen applicable;(c) Granting rights for the use of water throughauthorizations, permits, licenses, or concessionssubject to some regulations that varyfrom country to country;(d) Modern water rights flexible enough to introducefunctional criteria for the use of waterby giving the water authority concernedsufficiently wide discretionary powers;(e) Ordering of water use on a priority basisand including this in the legal frameworkfor municipal, agricultural, industrial, hydropower,aquaculture, navigational andrecreational uses, especially in water stressareas;(f ) Making the legal ordering flexible enoughto allow for alterations and modifications inresponse to national economic, social, andBox 15.2The National Water Act of South AfricaThe most important of these acts, from an environment and waterpoint of view, includes Section 2(g): protecting aquatic andassociated ecosystems and their biological diversity; and Section 2(h): reducing and preventing pollution and degradation of water resources.It also includes recognizing the need for an integrated managementof all aspects of water resources and, where appropriate,delegating management functions to a regional or catchment levelso as to enable everyone to participate.environmental changes;(g) Grouping beneficial uses of water under aunified code as against the present practiceof specifying them under their respectivewater uses;(h) Incorporating in a basic water code or acoordinated list of provisions, the adverseeffects of both natural and man-inducedwater, such as flood damage, submergenceof riverbanks, soil erosion and siltation andsalinization, as an integral part of the generalwater management.(i) Formulating legal provisions on water qualityand pollution control possibly as partof a central water code to cater for waterwastage and wrongful use, water recyclingand reuse, sanitation and protection againstpollution and the environment in general;(j) Making groundwater resources an indivisiblecomponent of the water cycle throughspecial provisions and legislation coveringdrilling of boreholes and aquifer risk to depreciationand pollution;(k) Including protection of waterworks and hydraulicinstallations in legislation on operation,maintenance and general protection ofthe water system;(l) Making special legislation for protectedregions or zones such as drainage basinboundaries and smaller zones such as landdevelopment units, flood protection ordrought emergency zones, national parksand reserves and areas of pollution;(m) Modernizing water legislation to providefor enforcement procedures to protect waterrights. Such procedures could even includethe use of sanctions and other legalmeasures in case of infringement of thewater code.Perhaps the most important provision in the National Water Actis that for the “Reserve”, defined as: “the quantity and quality ofwater required (a) to satisfy basic human needs … and (b) to protectaquatic ecosystems in order to secure ecologically sustainabledevelopment and use of the relevant water resource”.A water use licence may not be granted unless there is sufficientwater for the reserve.The nature of water resources institutions in acountry is influenced by many factors, includingclimate and the level of water resources development344