A COMPARISON OF THE COST ASSOCIATED WITH POLLUTION PREVENTION MEASURES TO THAT REQUIRED TO TREAT POLLUTED WATER RESOURCES Report to the Water Research Commission by SHH Oelofse, S Roux, W de Lange, BK Mahumani, W le Roux, M du Preez, HA Greben & M Steyn CSIR WRC Report No. 1845/1/11 ISBN 978-1-4312-0226-3 March 2012 Obtainable from Water Research Commission Private Bag X03 Gezina, 0031
[email protected] or download from www.wrc.org.za DISCLAIMER This report has been reviewed by the Water Research Commission (WRC) and approved for publication. Approval does not signify that the contents necessarily reflect the views and policies of the WRC, nor does mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. © WATER RESEARCH COMMISSION ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Background and motivation Pollution of water resources is largely as a result of human activity and therefore could be prevented to a large degree. The quality of our water resources is deteriorating and downstream water users have to deal with the pollution impacts caused by upstream uses. This situation have resulted in a debate as to whether it will not make more economic sense for water users to treat water for use rather than to meet discharge standards. There are instances where discharge standards require water of a better quality to be released than what was abstracted for use in the first place. However, the National Water Act, 1998 places the responsibility for pollution prevention and remediation on the polluter, not the user. The development of the Waste Discharge Charge System (WDCS) is aimed at providing economic incentives and penalties for polluters to pay in accordance with the “polluter-pays- principle”.