River Operations Committee
4. DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ADAPTIVE OPERATIONAL WATER RESOUCES
4.2. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERATIONAL WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
4.2.1 Institutional Arrangements
As indicated in the literature review, it is imperative that the institutional arrangements are properly identified and understood by all stakeholders involved in operational water resources management so that confusion about the various roles and responsibilities, institutions and forums is minimised and effective implementation is not hindered.
Operational Water Resources Management Data and Information
collection, archiving, processing, utilisation and dissemination
Modelling and Decision
Support Systems
•Mike Floodwatch
•Mike 11
•WReMP
•WAS
•Others
Stakeholder Participation and Decision Making
•Operations Committee
•Website, E-mails, SMS’s
Institutional Arrangements
•DWA
•Water Users Association
•KNP
•Dam Operators etc.
The overarching institutional arrangements within South Africa and the Inkomati are already established through the National Water Act of South Africa, Act 36 of 1998 (NWA).
The NWA embraces the need for decentralisation through its requirement to establish catchment management agency’s (CMA) responsible for IWRM. While CMA’s are responsible for IWRM through the delegation and assignment of powers and functions in terms of section 73(4) of the NWA, the National Department of Water Affairs (DWA) ultimately remains the responsible authority. As such, there are various divisions within DWA that will continue to play an active role in the institutional arrangements and governance of catchment scale water resource management. These divisions include the office of the minister (responsible for overarching policy), the national planning office (responsible for water resources planning), the local regional office and the infrastructure branch (responsible for the operation and maintenance of dams).
The Inkomati CMA was the first CMA to be established in South Africa and has received several delegated powers and functions. These are shown in APPENDIX D. As described in section 2.3.2, a key initial function of the ICMA was the development of its CMS, which established the ICMA as an institution that utilises strategic adaptive management (*).
Certain powers and functions had yet to be delegated or assigned to the ICMA at the commencement of the study creating some confusion as to the roles and responsibilities of the two organisations. However, it was agreed between DWA and the ICMA that:
1) The ICMA assist DWA with the implementation and operation of project deliverables and outcomes.
2) The ICMA coordinate all stakeholder engagement in the catchment.
(ICMA CMS, 2010).
Consequently, agreement was reached between DWA and the ICMA for the ICMA to implement the DWA real time operations DSS project for the Crocodile River, which proved to be the kick start required for the commencement of the development and implementation of the AOWRMF (#).
The realities of the overarching institutional arrangement, current delegated powers and functions, agreements with DWA, completed CMS and SAM processes followed by the ICMA have all been incorporated into the institutional arrangements, roles and responsibilities for the operational water resources management of the Crocodile River, shown in Figure 16.
(*) Refer to section 2.3.2.1. “ICMA CMS, Strategic Action Programmes and Objectives” for details on the SAM process followed by the ICMA.
Overarching institutional arrangements in South Africa
(#) Refer to section 4.2.4. “Modelling and Decision Support System” for
more details on the DSS related development.
Figure 16: The institutional arrangements, showing the institutions, roleplayers, responsibilities, forums, communications and feedback loops for operational water resources management in the Crocodile River.
Figure 16 also indicates the communication lines required to support the functional adaptive operational water resources management framework for the Crocodile River (Section 4.3 and Figure 42). In particular, the rapid response system (discussed in section 4.3.1) related communication lines are shown as thick blue lines and the CROCOC stakeholder (discussed in section 4.2.2) communication lines are shown as solid thin black lines.
The NWA also allows for the establishment of Water User Associations (WUA). WUA’s are a key mechanism in the NWA for facilitating the decentralisation of relevant powers and functions for IWRM and thereby enable effective stakeholder engagement in IWRM at the local level. The NWA states that “although water user associations are water management institutions their primary purpose, unlike catchment management agencies, is not water management. They operate at a restricted localised level, and are in effect cooperative associations of individual water users who wish to undertake water related activities for their mutual benefit”. “Water user associations must operate within the framework of national policy and standards, particularly the national water resource strategy” and “may exercise management powers and duties only if and to the extent these have been assigned or delegated to it”.
Within the Crocodile River catchment, no WUA’s have been established. However, Irrigation Boards do exist in terms of the previous Water Act of South Africa, Act 54 of 1956. The Irrigation Boards continue to perform their functions in terms of that act until transformed into WUA’s. Their functions
Legend
Operational / Strategic Reserve Compliance monitoring Alerts ito RRS.
Submit Orders to WUA Comply with allocations / restrictions
Water Requirements to CROCOC / ICMA Implement & Manage Allocations & Use
Implement & Adjust agreed releases/restrictions ito RRS Manage the WUA Water Ordering System
Assistance / Advice to ICMA/DWA in Operations River Systems Operations:
Operate Model/DSS
Chair and Secretariat for CROCOC Releases and restrictions instructions ito RRS Approval of WUA requests
Information Coordination:
Maintain website, alerts Maintain DSS hardware & software Information Dissemination OTHER
STAKEHOLDERS / OBSERVERS
OWRM STAKEHOLDERS
WUA Crocodile River
Operations Committee (CROCOC) Crocodile River Forum
ICMA Management
Board
Committees / Forums Institutions OWRM Responsibilities
Policy , Regulation and Compliance
Kwena Dam Operations & Maintenance Adjust Dam releases on request ito RRS Water Resources planning
Develop Operating Rules;
Regulate Implementation of Operating Rules Water Allocations, CME, Regulation
Note: CRMIB is acting as a Proto WUA for the purposes of CROCOC
Minister DWA
Infrastructure Branch Regional Office
NWRP & WRP
MTPA KOBWA
ARA-SUL KNP
All Water Users
CROCOC Communications CROCOC Rapid Response System (RRS)
General IWRM Communication
DWA = Department of Water Affairs; ICMA = Inkomati Catchment Management Agency;
NWRP = National Water Resource Planning; WRPS = Water Resource Planning Systems; DSS = Decision Support System; RRS = Rapid Response System; WUA = Water User Association;
KNP = Kruger National Park; MTPA = Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency; IWRM = Integrated Water Resource Management; CRMIB = Crocodile River Major Irrigation Board
are much the same as WUA’s, except that they only support the irrigation sector. In the Crocodile River catchment, the Crocodile River Major Irrigation Board (CRMIB) manages the allocation and use of all irrigators and is thus an important stakeholder. In Figure 16, the WUA is shown as the relevant local institutional organisation that must be involved in the institutional arrangements, but the CRMIB will play this role until such time as it is transformed into a WUA.
The NWA also required CMA’s to establish catchment management committees to facilitate stakeholder engagement around IWRM at catchment level. The ICMA had already established a Crocodile River Forum (CRF) to engage with stakeholders on IWRM at the commencement of this study. This forum was approached about the institutional
arrangements specific to OWRM in the Crocodile River and agreed that a separate river operations committee of relevant stakeholders should be established for OWRM that would then feed relevant information back to the greater CRF where relevant. This arrangement is in line with the social learning criteria that participation should be limited to stakeholders directly involved in the jointly identified problem (*) and who have a sense of interdependence (#) in order that sufficient, focused discussions can take place, yet still allow for openness and feedback to the general IWRM stakeholders through the link to the Crocodile River forum.
A river operations committee was thus established and met for the first time in October 2009. It is known as the Crocodile River Operations Committee (CROCOC). The TOR of the committee indicates that although the CROCOC has no decision
making powers under current legislation, its role as a coordinating and advisory body is exceptionally important in the broader decision making process and it serves the relevant decision making authorities defined in the NWA (DWA, ICMA, WUA) as the platform for informed and consensus driven decision making (@).
Please refer to section 4.2.2 for more detail on the CROCOC and its establishment.
Figure 16 represents the culmination of the deliberation process with the CROCOC around the institutional arrangements and indicates the various institutions, roleplayers, responsibilities, forums and committees related to operational water resources management. It recognises that operational water resources management is only one aspect of IWRM and that any institutional arrangements around it must fit into the broader IWRM realities, indicated through the link to the CRF.