Owners of unregistered dams meeting the criteria for classification as a dam with a safety risk have two months to undertake the dam registration process to ensure dam safety compliance.

This followed the gazetting of a notice outlining the requirement for the dam owners to verify their registration status and update their details, or if not yet registered, submit the required forms to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) within 60 days of publication, which was on November 22.

The registration process aims to ensure the safety of dams and reduce risks to the public, property and water resources.

“The department considers a dam with a safety risk as a dam with a storage capacity exceeding 50 000 m³ of water, whether the water contains other substances or not, and having a vertical wall height of more than five metres, measured from the downstream base,” said DWS head of specialist unit: dam safety regulation Wally Ramokopa.

In line with this, the DWS embarked on a mass multimedia campaign to raise awareness about the importance of dam registration, with the aim of ensuring that all dams with safety risks meet compliance standards to reduce potential harm to people, property and the environment.

It also aims to maintain an accurate database of dam ownership and safety compliance for effective regulation and risk management.

The DWS enforces compliance for dam owners to conduct safety evaluations at least every five years, with dam owners required to arrange for the execution of a formal dam safety inspection by an approved professional person (APP), who conducts a flood frequency analysis to check whether the dam is able to route through different flood occurrences.

“This helps the department’s dam safety office in knowing beforehand whether the dam would be overtopped should a certain size of flood occur, or potential damage of the dam. The department’s dam safety office then receives reports from APPs which contain information pertaining to the flood handling capability and structural behaviour of dams,” Ramokopa said.

The dam safety office conducts dam safety compliance monitoring inspections to ensure that dam owners implement recommendations by APPs once the dam safety evaluations are received.

Failure to implement the APP's recommendations, particularly when findings indicate that the dam may not be safe and have the potential to fail or cause loss of life, will attract directives to compel dam owners to comply from the dam safety office.

Ramokopa issued a stern warning to dam owners who do not comply with regulations and emphasised that the DWS would not hesitate to take punitive measures to ensure compliance with the law.

“Dam owners are bound by law to comply and to also implement recommendations as made by an APP after inspections are conducted. To prevent the loss of life and safeguard the environment, we will not even blink twice to ensure that dam owners do what is required of them by law,” Ramokopa warned.

“The department urges all dam owners to act immediately. Compliance is not just a legal requirement but a critical step in ensuring the safety of communities, protecting the environment and securing water resources for the future.”