Progress with Water Allocation Reform in South Africa - Water and Agriculture: Sustainability, Markets and Policies - page 370

Rollout of the compulsory licensing process
The compulsory licensing process will be initiated in three catchments within the
following year. These processes are being initiated by undertaking status quo studies of
water use in the catchments. The studies are used to “set the scene” with stakeholders,
and an outcome of this process being the establishment of Compulsory Licensing
Steering Committees or Working Groups of stakeholders in the catchments concerned.
Draft catchment assessment reports (CAR) have been compiled, which are evaluated by
the operational departmental staff and stakeholders prior to being tabled as an
information/discussion document in support of compulsory licensing.
Improving the licence processing and allocation systems
Much of the success of the WAR programme rests on being able to rapidly respond to
applications to use water. Steps are being taken to develop and/or acquire systems that
expedite the efficient evaluation of licence applications during compulsory licensing.
These include a CD based allocations support system that will help personnel collate and
report on the current state of water allocation reform on a quaternary catchment basis.
This process will also support the allocation process in these catchments, as outlined in
the Toolkit.
Linkages and partnerships
The provincial WAR workshops have provided excellent opportunities for forging
stronger links with civic structures, state and para-statal structures and for strengthening
the involvement of the regional office staff of the department in the programme. These
are being further pursued with the intention of formalising some of the partnership; for
example, memoranda of understanding.
7. Progress: Phase III — auditing, monitoring and evaluation
The limitations within this phase of the programme have presented particular
challenges regarding its design at the outset, and its effectiveness during and post-
implementation. The absence of data regarding the extent of water use on a gender and
race basis has delayed the development of a monitoring protocol for these attributes.
8. Risks and threats
Five potential risk areas have been identified and include:
lack of committed departmental high-level support for WAR;
an inability to effectively address human resource capacity constraints in the
provincial offices of the department in a timely manner;
performance in “bad faith” by internal and/or external partners during the WAR
process resulting in obstacles to co-ordination — these include power-blocs and turf-
battles;