The Minister of Water and Sanitation, Pemmy Majodina, and her department are getting tough after a months-long awareness campaign warning landowners to register unregistered dams within 60 days.
A notice was published in the Government Gazette on November 29. The purpose of registering dams under the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998), read together with regulations 2, 3 and 37 of the Dam Safety Regulations (R139 of 24 February 2012), is to ensure dam safety and reduce the risks they pose to the public, properties, and water resources.
Adriaan Groenewald, a Humansdorp attorney, previously told African Farming the department had been relatively lenient by allowing users to legalise (unauthorised) dam structures, but this has changed with an increase in the directives issued by the department for illegal dams. The department says the new measures will also help protect the environment and secure water resources for the future.
Wally Ramokopa, head of the department’s specialised Dam Safety Regulation Unit, says a dam is a safety risk when it has a storage capacity of more than 50 000m³ (50 megalitres), which is equivalent to about 20 Olympic swimming pools. The other technical threshold that classifies a dam as a potential safety hazard is a vertical height (measured from the “downstream foundation”) of more than 5m. The downstream foundation refers to the base or bottom of the dam on the side where water flows out or away from the dam.
According to Ramokopa, the department has already launched a large-scale multimedia campaign to raise awareness about the importance of dam registration.
“The dam registration campaign will also create an accurate database of dam ownership and safety compliance, facilitating effective regulation and risk management.” Dam owners must have a formal dam safety inspection conducted by an approved professional (APP) every five years. The APP must conduct a flood frequency analysis to determine how the dam will hold during different flood events. The department’s dam safety office can then determine the relevant dam’s flood handling capacity and structure, how the dam can withstand a specific size flood and potential damage.
Officials will also conduct monitoring inspections to ensure dam owners implement the APP’s recommendations after receiving a dam safety evaluation. Directives can be issued to dam owners who fail to implement the recommendations, especially when findings indicate that the dam may be unsafe or could collapse and cause loss of life.
Ramokopa says they won’t hesitate to implement punitive measures against law violators. Dam owners who have already registered their dams must ensure the information is kept up to date. The forms can be obtained on the department’s website, www.dws.gov.za/dso, or collected from the nearest departmental offices. For more information about dam registration, contact The Dam Safety Regulation Unit at damsafety@dws.gov.za or Mokgadi Modipane at 082 802 7092 or Makgano Tlaka at 083 412 2649.
