South Africa: Water and Sanitation calls for public comments on draft regulations on access and recreational use of state-owned dams

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Deadline of 23 May 2023 is fast approaching, and members of the public are left with five (5) days to submit comments on the draft regulations on access and use of government waterworks (state dams) and surrounding state-owned land for recreational purposes.

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) published a notice for comments draft regulations on Government Gazette Notice No. 48294 on 24 March 2023, opening a 60-day window for interested parties and individuals to submit written comments on the access and use of the government water works for various recreational purposes including commercial activities such as fishing, organised sporting, tourism, accommodation and other events.

The department owns numerous government waterworks (state dams), and according to Section 113 of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act No. 36 of 1998), the water and surrounding state-owned land of state dams may be made available for recreational purposes.

Subsequent to the public comments on the draft regulation, the department will conduct extensive public consultations in all nine provinces across the country with the purpose of soliciting inputs from various stakeholders and members of the public with interests in accessing and using these departmental facilities and infrastructures for recreational purposes.

Details on physical provincial consultations will be communicated in due course.

The main objectives of the draft regulations, amongst others, include:

• To address the need to apply precautionary approaches to recreational water use of state dams;
• To meet the need to utilise recreational water use of state dams to achieve economic growth, human resource development, capacity building, employment creation and sound ecological balance consistent with the development objectives of national government;
• To meet the need to protect the biodiversity of aquatic and associated ecosystems and to minimise pollution of these water resources;
• To meet the need to achieve, to the extent practicable, broad and accountable participation in the decision-making process in resource management planning;
• To meet the need to ensure compatibility of recreational water use with other water uses;
• To meet the need to ensure the safety of recreational water users; and
• To minimise the associated risks of the Department.

Interested individuals have 60 days to submit written comments, from the day of publishing, which is 24 March 2023 in the Government Gazette. Comments can be submitted to muira@dws.gov.za(link sends e-mail), malulekej2@dws.gov.za(link sends e-mail) and nhlabathis@dws.gov.za(link sends e-mail) by 23 May 2023. For more information on the draft regulations and the public consultations, please contact Dr Jabulani Maluleke on 066 300 5533 or Steven Nhlabathi on 083 609 1434.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic Of South Africa: Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment.