Tools give resource managers more muscle

Abstract

Water quality management Following promulgation of South Africa’s groundbreaking water legislation in the late 1990s, water quality management in the country entered a new era, moving from a historic end-of-pipe to a more holistic integrated water resource management approach. The purpose of the National Water Act of 1998 is to ensure that the country’s water resources are protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in an equitable, efficient and sustainable manner. This necessitates a change in the approach of water quality management to an integrated source, resource and remediation focused management approach. Among others, the Act makes provision for the ‘Reserve’ – a particular water quality and quantity to be set aside to protect the ecological functions of an aquatic ecosystem before water uses such as the abstraction of water from, or the discharge of water containing waste to a water resource can be authorised.

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