Department of Water Affairs and Forestry Financing Catchment Management Strategies

Department of Water Affairs and ForestryFinancing Catchment Management Strategies Presented at Catchment Management: Rules of Engagement Workshop, Misty Hills, 20 September 2005 Werner P.Comrie Chief Engineer Water Resources Management DWAF: Mpumalanga Regional Office: Nelspruit

Note • The number of slides have essentially been covered by previous speakers and discussions, but are presented in the interest of combining needs and costs. In a sense to conceptualise affordability and sources of funding.

Who will determine what will be included and for which purpose? • Minister • CMA • User Sector (Water User Associations) • Interested and Affected Parties

Who owns the process and results? • Determined by the outcomes • Determined by information and strategic needs (National and Local) • CMA will adopt • Will DWAF approve? • Revision every 5 years

Conflicting Interests • Different parties may have different perceptions on what protection, use, development, conservation, management and control implies or requires

Will CMS be drafted only once CMA is in place? • CMA’s will be established progressively on priority basis (DWAF Administratively) • CMA’s will be established where stakeholders initiate processes (Bottom up) • CMA’s will be established upon instruction from the Minister (Political) • CMS cannot be drafted without a CMA. It will defeat the purpose of establishing a CMA.

Will the CMS be subjective or objective? • Subjective since stakeholders involved in drafting (Risk - Strong role players may dominate) • Objective since DWAF will monitor and regulate strategic purpose in line with NWRS (Risk – May not have good perception on practicalities at grass-roots level)

What are the needs of the Stakeholders? • Development requirements (e.g. Water Services Development Plans) • Management plans • Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (Political and Catchment boundaries do not co-incide) • Customer needs • Environmental issues • Etc.

Issues not included in the CMA functions as defined, which may affect costs

International Issues • Many Catchments have international responsibilities, which should be addressed by the CMS • Governed by Treaties and Agreements at National and SADC level • Funded through Fiscus(Exchequer)

Will system and scheme operating rules be included? • These may affect Different WMA’s as one system • These are required to maintain required availability throughout the system • Role of the National Infrastructure Agency (Trading Account 3) • Also consider Scheme costs and Charges • Currently mostly on Trading Accouts 2 and 3, NOT 1

What are the requirements to include national information needs ? • Groundwater monitoring • Hydrometry • Hydrology • Surveys and GIS • Currently funded through Fiscus (Exchequer)

Will Working for Water be included? • Affects tariffs (Trading account) • Poverty relief programme (Fiscus) • Demand management programme • Affects catchment yields

What is prescribed by Legislation, Policies and Guidelines? • National Water Act • National Water Resources Strategy • Pricing Strategy • Regulations? • Contextual guidelines and Standards

Let’s talk Money, which directly affects this

What will the Catchment Management Strategy Cost? • These are only estimates currently, but the first round may cost anything from R5 million to R20 million depending on what will be required, who will participate,the level of detail and in which Water Management Area.

Who funds the CMA? • Establishment is funded mostly by DWAF (From Fiscus – Exchequer - Taxpayer) • Operations are funded by users on Trading Account principle (Consumptive users and Waste Discharge, i.e. Trading Account 1)

Define rate payers • Industry and Domestic (Municipalities) • Mining • Agriculture • Stream Flow Reduction Activities (Forestry) The ratio and rate differs from Catchment to Catchment

What do rate payers fund through tariffs according to the proposed revised Pricing Strategy?

The activities of the CMA’s will be funded from the Water Resource Management Charges

Water Resource Management Charge • Planning and implementaion of Catchment Management Strategies • Monitoring and assessing water resource availability and use • Water use allocations • Water quantity management • Water resource protection • Water conservation and demand management • Institutional development

What does the National Water Act say? Nothing about funding CMS specifically

So what to do? • Requires strategic thinking • Requires fair apportionment of funding • Paying (consumptive) water users cannot be burdened with total cost which will include and benefit non consumptive users (environment, recreation, tourism, etc.) • Next

New water users who will benefit do not currently pay charges. Does this mean that existing users will fund a process which may potentially impact negatively on them through the Water Allocation Reform programme as well as the implementation of the Reserve? • Should be subsidised for National Strategic functions and requirements

Thanks for your attention End

Department of Water Affairs and Forestry Financing Catchment Management Strategies