The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has embarked on the public consultations for its draft ‘Rehabilitation Management Guidelines (RMG) for Water Resources’.

Interested stakeholders have until October 29 to provide input into the document aimed at avoiding, minimising and remedying water quality degradation of water resources such as rivers, dams, wetlands, estuaries, groundwater and dams and lakes.

The department’s Sources Directed Studies has been undertaking the project since 2020 to respond to the need for the protection and sustainable management of water resources.

The first phase started with defining the project scope and reviewing the available information to establish the status quo with regard to rehabilitation practices and interventions for water resources, said DWS Sources Directed Studies director and RMG project leader Tovhowani Nyamande.

Addressing delegates during the public consultations, she explained that, after a comprehensive review of available studies, publications, reports, projects, programmes and initiatives specific to South Africa and implemented in support of rehabilitation, the team developed the step-by-step RMGs for five water resource themes, namely rivers, wetlands, estuaries, lakes and dams and groundwater.

The ‘RMG’s in Practice’ report outlines roles, responsibilities and mandates of key role-players with regards to the rehabilitation and demonstrates the applicability of the developed RMGs in real-world situations.

DWS Sources Directed Studies production scientist and RMG project coordinator Kgotso Mahlahlane said that the RMGs for water resources were developed in terms of their interactions with characteristics of watercourses, namely, hydrology (surface flow and interflow), geomorphology, water quality, habitat, biota and groundwater flows.

The guidelines followed a phased approach encompassing diagnostic, planning and assessment, rehabilitation objective setting, execution, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.

The RMGs were developed to give effect to, and align with, broader key sector policies and strategic objectives and actions, including in the National Water and Sanitation Master Plan, the National Water Resource Strategy and the Integrated Water Quality report, besides others.

The major focus of the developed RMGs was to integrate, align and harmonise efforts across different projects, programmes and initiatives given the separate mandates and various institutions responsible for rehabilitation work.

The ever-increasing population, industrialisation, urbanisation, over-utilisation of natural resources, land degradation and climate change are amongst other impacts associated with the deterioration of freshwater ecosystems.