THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WATER RESOURCES CLASSIFICATION

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2. THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WATER RESOURCES CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM AND DETERMINATION OF THE RESOURCE QUALITY OBJECTIVES FOR THE SIGNIFICANT WATER RESOURCES IN THE LETABA CATCHMENT(WP 10640) BRIEFING SESSION Date: 20 March 2012 Time: 10:00 Venue: Sedibeng 640

3. Purpose Objectives of the Project Legal Mandate Water Resource Classification System (WRCS) regulation Classification and Resource Quality Objectives (RQOs) process in the Letaba Catchment PRESENTATION STRUCTURE

4. To provide background to the determination of the Management Class (MC) and the RQOs in the Letaba catchment. To provide a brief overview of the Water Resources Classification System (WRCS) and Procedures to develop Resource Quality Objectives (RQOs) PURPOSE

5. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT The main aim of this study is to co-ordinate the implementation of the WRCS (7 step process) in order to determine a suitable MC for the relevant water resources; and To determine RQOs using the Departmental Procedures to Develop and Implement RQOs.

6. The classification of South African water resources is required by the National Water Act (NWA) (No. 36 of 1998) (Chapter 3 regarding the protection of water resources) Regulation 810 published in Government Gazette No. 33541 dated 17 September 2010 defined water resource management classes and the procedure to determine a management class and RQOs. According to the NWA, once the WRCS has been gazetted all significant water resources must be classified and RQOs be determined. LEGAL MANDATE

7. The WRCS places water resources into different categories referred to as Management Class. The WRCS is a set of guidelines and procedures for determining the MCs of water resources. MC facilitates the balance between protection and use of the water resources. MC describes the desired condition of the water resource and the extent to which it can be utilized. The process requires cooperation & transparency with all stakeholders. THE WATER RESOURCE CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

8. Three classes: Class I minimally used - The Configuration of ecological categories of the water resources within a catchment results in an overall water resource condition that is minimally altered from its pre-development condition. Class II moderately used - The configuration of ecological categories of the water resources within a catchment results in an overall water resource condition that is moderately altered from its pre-development condition. Class III heavily used - the configuration of ecological categories of the water resources in a catchment results in an overall water resource that is significantly altered from its predevelopment condition. MANAGEMENT CLASSES DEFINITIONS

9. RESOURCE QUALITY OBJECTIVES (RQOS) The NWA states that the purpose of RQOs is to establish clear goals relating to the quality of the relevant water resources; and Stipulates that in determining RQOs a balance must be sought between the need to protect and sustain water resources and the need to use them. The RQOs can be numeric or descriptive statements.

10. THE LINK OF RQOS WITH WATER RESOURCE CLASSIFICATION Vision for the Resource Classification of Water Resources Ecological Requirements User Requirements Management Class for each resource unit Resource Quality Objectives (Quantity, quality, habitat, biota) Develop Implementation & monitoring plan Implementation of Ecological Requirements through Source Directed Controls Implementation of User Requirements through Source Directed Controls

11. GUIDING PRINCIPLES Coordination and integration Capacity building and skills transfer Depend on the existing work and current studies Transparency and Stakeholder engagement Consultative and collaborations

12. Letaba catchment is located in the Letaba and Luvuvhu Water Management area: WMA 2 (Figure 1) The Shingwedzi and Luvuvhu catchments are not included in this study Letaba Catchment is divided into 3 tertiary catchments (Figure 2): Upper Letaba (B81) Middle Letaba (B82) Lower Letaba (B83) STUDY AREA

13. The locality map of the study area

14. The Locality of the Letaba Catchment

15. INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THIS STUDY The following information is required in order to classify and determine the RQOs for Letaba Catchment: • EWR data (from Resource Directed Measures) • Land-use data (from ARC, department of agriculture, etc) • Socio-economic data (from municipality, STASSA, chamber of mines, etc) • Infrastructure and existing allocations (DWA, municipalities etc • Conservation information (SANParks) • Stakeholders database

16. WORK COMPLETED BY THE DEPARTMENT The department has complied a gap analysis report. The Comprehensive Reserve determination (2006) Development and the Implementation of a Framework to operationalise the Reserve: Pilot Studies (Letaba, Luvuvhu, Kat and Upper Komati River): (2010) The Development of a Reconciliation Strategy for the Luvuvhu and Letaba Water Supply System (current) Update on PES and EIS Project (ongoing)

17. The duration of this study is 24 months with six main tasks. Task 1: Project inception Task 2: Water resource information and data gathering Task 3: Determination of the Management Class and RQOs Task 4: Communication and Liaison Task 5: Capacity Building Task 6: Study Management and coordination STUDY TASKS: LETABA CATCHMENT

18. Purpose: Provide opportunity to identify, assess and interpret the nature and scope of the project Define role players, interface with other initiatives, study budget Identify potential IUAs, nodes, Resource Units (RU) and significant water resources To plan and coordinate a site visits Outcome: Inception Report Work programme Capacity building and mentorship programme TASK 1: PROJECT INCEPTION

19. Purpose: Review literature, reports, models and any other relevant information supportive to the classification process List available water resources models Undertake information and data gap analysis Outcome: Information/Gap Analysis Report TASK 2: WATER RESOURCE INFORMATION AND DATA GATHERING

20. TASK 3:DETERMINATION OF THE MC AND RQOs Purpose: To implement the 7-step WRCS procedure in order to classify significant water resources; and To determine the RQOS The Regulations and Guidelines, as well as the Procedures to Develop and Implement RQOs can be found on this links: http://www.dwa.gov.za/rdm/Documents.aspx Table and slides below indicates activities and associated deliverables of this task.

21. TASK 3:DETERMINATION OF THE MC AND RQOS (cont)

22. DELINEATION OF INTEGRATED UNITS OF ANALYSIS, NODES AND RESOURCE UNITS (STEP 1: WRCS and RQOs) • The PSP will need to: • Identify significant water resources and infrastructure • Define Socio-economic Zones and identify significant land use • Identify and analyse Hydrological and Geohydrological data • Define the biophysical and allocation nodes as well as Resource Units. • Analyse the PES, EIS as well as NFEPA map. • Outcome: Proposed IUA, Nodes and RU

23. LINK THE VALUE AND CONDITION OF THE WATER RESOURCES (STEP 2: WRCS) • The decision analysis framework and scoring system will need to be defined • To determine the relationship between economic value, social well being and ecosystem characteristics • The outcome of this steps is to understand how water users are influenced by the availability of water resources

24. QUANTIFICATION OF ECOLOGICAL WATER REQUIREMENTS (EWRs) (STEP 3: WRCS) • To analysis the following: • Historic PES and EIS, • Comprehensive reserve study (2006), • Results from updated PES study which is currently underway, • NFEPA(Conservation targets) • Extrapolation of existing and new EWRs results to all identified nodes • To undertake additional Rapid Reserve determination when necessary. • The outcome: To have an indication of the current state of the water resources in terms of flow and quality

25. DETERMINE THE ECOLOGICAL BASE CONFIGURATION SCENARIO (ESBC) AND STARTER CONFIGURATION SCENARIOS (STEP 4: WRCS) The ESBC is define as the lowest (theoretical) level of protection The PSP will be required to do the following Is to developed the ESBC scenarios To test the ESBC scenarios in terms of hydrology and ecologically sustainability using water resources models. Outcome: A number of possible ESBC scenarios for stakeholder evaluation

26. EVALUATE SCENARIOS WITHIN IWRM PROCESS (STEP 5: WRCS) • Objective: to establish a manageable number of configuration scenarios • The PSP will be required to do the following: • To set and run the water resource models • To evaluate and measure planning as well as other scenarios against the ESBC Outcome: number of possible starter configuration scenarios for stakeholder evaluation

27. EVALUATE THE SCENARIOS (STEP 6), AGREE RESOURCE UNITS, RQO AND NUMERICAL LIMITS WITH STAKEHOLDERS • The PSP will be required to do the following • To arrange public or sector specific workshops • Stakeholders to evaluate scenarios and provide comments and inputs to a possible number of short-listed scenarios • DWA and project team to consider and refine the economic, ecological and social information for the short listed scenarios (options); • To populate a template for recommending the proposed Classes, ROQs and numerical limits for each IUA to the Minister of DWA for gazetting; • Proposed Classes and RQOS gazetted for a period of 60 days for public comment. • To address all comment/s raised during the commenting period

28. GAZETTE AND IMPLEMENT THE MANAGEMENT CLASS AND RQOS (STEP 7 BOTH WRCS AND RQOS) • This step entails the gazetting of the proposed Classes, Reserve and RQOs in the Government Gazette. • To develop a plan for implementation/operationalisation of the class, Reserve and RQOs

29. TASK 3:DETERMINATION OF THE MC AND RQOS (cont)

30. ESTABLISH A CATCHMENT VISION AND KEY ELEMENTS FOR EACH IUA (STEP 2: RQOS) Visioning is a consensus-building process which articulates society’s aspirations into a common future purpose. Multiple stakeholders are involved in this process in a workshop format. The PSP will need to: To prepare baseline situation assessment Invite stakeholders to the workshop To select a facilitator and plan the workshop The outcome: Catchment and IUA Vision

31. PRIORITIZE AND SELECT PRELIMINARY RESOURCE UNITS FOR RQO DETERMINATION USING TOOL (STEP 3: RQOs) The PSP will need to prioritize and select preliminary Resource Units which will be discussed and agreed with stakeholder in Step 6. The Resource Units Prioritization Tool has been developed to assist in the selection of RUs which should be considered as important for monitoring. The tool is developed for rivers, wetlands and estuaries. At least one RU should be selected in each IUA

32. PRIORITIZE SUB-COMPONENTS, SELECT INDICATORS AND PROPOSE DIRECTION OF CHANGE (STEP 4: RQOs) Resource Unit Evaluation Tool guides the RQO determination through a number of decisions in order to produce a prioritised short-list of indicators that can be used for monitoring of a particular Resource Unit The PSP will need to: Identify and prioritize sub-components that may be important to either users or the environment. Select key sub-components for RQO determination and identify appropriate indictors to monitor them. Establish the desired direction of change for selected sub-components The Resource Unit Evaluation Tool will be used for different water resources (Rivers, Wetlands and Estuaries)

33. DEVELOP DRAFT RQOS AND NUMERICAL LIMITS (STEP 5: RQOs) Carry over the list of sub-components and indicators selected for monitoring, identifying whether they have been selected as an Ecospec, Userspec or Integrated measure and detailing the rationale for considering these Extract available data to determine the present state for selected sub-components and indicators Assess the suitability of the data Determine the level at which to set RQOs Set appropriate draft RQOs Set appropriate draft numerical limits in line with the draft RQOs

34. EVALUATE THE SCENARIOS (STEP 6), AGREE RESOURCE UNITS, RQO AND NUMERICAL LIMITS WITH STAKEHOLDERS • The PSP will be required to do the following • To present the scenarios, RQOS and numerical limits to the stakeholders • To populate a template for recommending the proposed Classes, ROQs and numerical limits for each IUA to the Minister of DWA for gazetting; • Proposed Classes and RQOS gazetted for a period of 60 days for public comment. • To address all comment/s raised during the commenting period

35. Purpose: To establish appropriate institutional arrangements to facilitate the progress of the project and coordinate stakeholder meetings Outcome: Stakeholder database and schedule of meetings Meetings documentation Issues and responses register Stakeholder consultation report To prepare adverts and announcements in the print media TASK 4: COMMUNICATION AND LIAISON

36. Capacity building will be realised through stakeholder participation To ensure skills transfer to the DWA, the following are proposed Workshops with DWA officials Mentorship through secondment of DWA officials as a mentee Purpose: Enhancing and broadening of skills base required to implement the WRCS and to determine RQOS Outcome: Capacity building programme (including mentorship) Progress reports TASK 5: CAPACITY BUILDING

37. Purpose: To ensure that the project progresses successfully Outcome: Progress reports presented during the Project Management Committee (PMC ) Meetings Recording of the minutes Main report Monthly invoices supported by progress report Close-out report TASK 6: STUDY MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION

38. Team Composition The PSP team must consists of individuals that are qualified and experienced in IWRM and water resource protection. Expertise is needed in each of the following: Aquatic ecology Hydrology Water quality Groundwater/geohydrology Water resource economics Water resource modeling and decision analysis Stakeholder involvement and public participation Geographical Information System (GIS) Legal

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