Critical Analysis of Environmental Water Quality in South Africa: Historic and Current Trends Report to the WATER RESEARCH COMMISSION by NJ Griffin1, CG Palmer1 and P-A Scherman2 1Unilever Centre for Environmental Water Quality, Institute for Water Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 2Scherman Colloty & Associates (SC&A), Grahamstown, South Africa WRC Report No. 2184/1/14 ISBN 978-1-4312-0536-3 April 2014 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 Executive summary BACKGROUND South Africa is widely recognised as having an admirable water law, and as being a leader in granting a right to water, in terms of quality and quantity, to the environment. However, the water quality of South African water resources is deteriorating (e.g. CSIR 2010, DWA 2011a), although good water quality management structures, strategies, approaches, programmes, instruments, and tools have been developed and implemented nationally. The research reported on here provides a review of changes in water quality management structures, programmes and approaches over the past two decades, and highlights areas where these need updating, completion or revision. As a comparative illustration of changes in water quality with time, changes in 11 water quality parameters in two river systems (the Crocodile River in Mpumalanga, which is moderately impacted, and the Olifants River, in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, which is severely impacted) are presented. AIMS In this regard, this report presents: • A review and critique of the development of policy, management practice and methodologies associated with environmental water quality, within water resource protection; • Recommendations for research that will support implementation of legal, policy and strategy requirements for environmental water quality, within water resource protection and • An assessment of the long term water quality trends in two catchments, selected as examples of systems that are moderately (the Crocodile River, Mpumalanga), and seriously (Olifants River, Mpumalanga/Limpopo) impacted by deteriorating water quality. INTRODUCTION The South African National Water Acts (No. 36 of 1998) made legal provision for the protection of water resources. Protective measures are termed Resource Directed Measures (RDM) and these include three processes: Classification; Reserve determination; and the setting of Resource Quality Objectives. These three processes are undertaken at differing bio-physical and institutional scales, with larger Integrated Units of Analysis (IUA) being used for classification of the resource, but smaller Resource Units (RU) being used for management at a finer scale and for the setting of Resource Quality Objectives (RQO). Management processes formally integrate these three to achieve overall management of the resource. Establishment of an understanding of environmental water quality and its underlying information requirements is relatively recent, and has been developed on the basis of an interaction between research and practice. Although much work on environmental water quality has been undertaken, finalization of methods has not occurred and no officially approved methodology has been put in place. In addition, methods for assessing long term trends in water quality are not clear. REVIEW OF SOUTH AFRICAN ENVIRONMENTAL WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT Management of environmental water quality in South Africa is undertaken to ensure water security in terms of quantity and quality to support economic and social development without compromising ecological sustainability. This report will review historic and current management of environmental water quality management with a focus on surface water in rivers, though other resources will receive some attention. For the most part, this report looks at methods and tools dealing with the resource, i and other management approaches, such as end-of-pipe assessment and treatment will receive less attention. Management of water quality at the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) is undertaken via the Chief Directorate: Resource Directed Measures (CD: RDM) and the Sub-Directorate: Water Quality Planning (WQP). The objective is to provide effective management and policy guidance with the context of integrated water resource management. One function of WQP is to undertake national reviews of water quality to determine status and trends in the resource with the aim of supporting strategic management decision making. The management of water quality for the aquatic environment is laid out in a series of documents entitled “Resource Directed Management of water Quality” published in 2006. The Chief Directorate: Resource Directed Measures was established in 2004 in order to ensure sustainable utilization of the country’s water resources to meet ecological, social and economic objectives, and to audit the state of water resources against these objectives. In particular, it is responsible for developing methodologies for RDM, determining and updating targets (as RQOs or the Reserve), assessing and auditing resource quality, and building capacity and providing support for RDM implementation. CD: RDM comprises three Directorates: Water Resource Classification; Reserve Requirements; and Resource Directed Measures Compliance. These interact as follows. • Classification: Weighs up the consequences of different scenarios of managing a catchment to produce a catchment configuration of Ecological Categories and a resultant Management Class. • Reserve: Quantifies the quantity and quality of water to achieve certain Ecological and Basic Human Needs Requirements. • Resource quality objectives: RQOs are numerical and/or narrative descriptive statements of conditions which should be met in the receiving water resource. RQOs will be developed to describe the set MCs, which leads on to monitoring. Resource Directed Measures interact with Source-directed Controls (SDC) and water use licensing in management of the resource. A decision support system, Assessment of Consideration for Water Use Application (ACWUA), has been developed to inform decisions on licence applications. Decisions are based in multiple criteria including socio-economic factors, race and gender considerations, and alignment to catchment strategy. Beyond ACWUA, a number of other tools are available or are planned to support water quality management in South Africa. Most of these are available, though uptake and application across the country varies. Regulatory tools for water quality management have been developed and are available. As management of pollution at source is recognized as an efficient and cost-effective approach, tools addressing this end are important in this regard. Failure to comply with licensing or authorisation conditions may result DWA issuing a directive, the withdrawal of a license, and, usually as a last resort, prosecution. Economic instruments for water quality management include the Waste Discharge Charge System (WCDS), which has the following three purposes: recovery of management costs; recovery of mitigation costs; and discouragement of water discharge. The WCDS initially only applies to point source discharges, as diffuse discharges are more difficult to quantify. Although WCDS currently operates at a national level, local input and interaction with other government bodies is important. A number of tools are available for self-regulation of water users’ impact on the resource. Some of these, such as ISO 14001 certification, have been widely implemented in certain sectors. ii WATER QUALITY ISSUES IN SOUTH AFRICA South Africa faces a number of challenges with regard to water quality. Some of these are widely recognised, while less is known of the others. Eutrophication is a major and widely recognised threat to water quality in the country. Eutrophication is a consequence of nutrient enrichment that leads to ecological changes, mostly notably blooms of algae or macrophytes. Eutrophication may impact on ecological systems, and also have aesthetic, recreational, agricultural, and human health impacts. Nutrient input to a resource can be anthropogenic as well as natural. Anthropogenic drivers of eutrophication include increased nutrient from wastewater, either from incorrectly run treatment plants or as a function of an increasing population, nutrient input owing to agricultural practices, and finally input from mines and/or industry. Algal blooms consequent on eutrophication have major ecological consequences, and the cyanobacterial blooms that are more common in the country may also produce toxins, and well as compounds modifying the taste and odour of abstracted water. Macrophyte blooms also have severe ecological consequences, and may lead to blockages of pipes or canals. There are a number of approaches to dealing with eutrophication; none practically address the removal of nutrients from a eutrophied system. Acid mine drainage (AMD) results largely from the oxidation of sulphide minerals (often pyrites), and is commonly facilitated by acidophilic bacteria. Typical consequences of this process are lowered pH levels, increased salinity (often as sulphates), and mobilisation