Hon House Chair, some of the most common challenges that are encountered by the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs in respect of compliance with water resource protection are the following: illegal water use in areas or instances where activities occur after licensing; noncompliance with licence conditions, such as not meeting the effluent discharge requirements; not installing appropriate meters where it is necessary to install them; and lack of consistency in the recording of water use. These are only some of them.
With the recent establishment of the Directorate of Compliance Monitoring and Enforcement, for example, the department has stepped up the regulation function in order to ensure that there is a specialised focus on this function. Through that the department is also focusing on the training of personnel in the regulation field, coupling this with the capacitating of this directorate.
There are also stakeholder engagements and capacity-building, which will result in sector participation in self-regulation. As time goes on we would like to believe that, because of these efforts, the identified challenges will be reduced. Definitely, the assessment will happen under normal circumstances as the regulation function is continuously strengthened.
Workshops and meetings are also being held with municipalities in order to strengthen their capacity and to determine the areas of need. This is so that the department can provide support where necessary, especially during the incentive-based regulation process for Green and Blue Drop Certification.
Coupled with these efforts, a review of relevant regulation tools, which are regulation strategies, guidelines and so on, is currently under way. This review will confirm the suitability and relevance of these tools. Such tools include, amongst others, the development of guidelines for wastewater management for different industries; and the revision of current effluent standards, determining charge rates for the implementation of the waste discharge system.
Indeed, the deterioration of water quality due to noncompliance would impact negatively on industrial produce and influence financial viability of such industries, which in turn would impact on the economy. As we are saying, we note that this kind of challenge will lead to an impact on the economy. It will also affect the quality of raw water and directly increase the water treatment costs. Thank you. [Time expired.]