Dam owners called to register their dams within 60 days

Image source: Tarun Hirapara from Pexels

This comes as Water and Sanitation Minister, Pemmy Majodina, published a gazette notice calling for the registration of existing dams with a safety risk, as mandated by the National Water Act (Act No. 36 of 1998), along with Regulations 2, 3, and 37 of the Dam Safety Regulations (R 139 of 24 February 2012).

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

The department’s Specialist Unit Head: Dam Safety Regulation, Wally Ramokopa said owners of dams meeting the criteria for classification as a dam with a safety risk, must verify their registration status, and submit the required forms to the Department of Water and Sanitation.

“The department considers a dam with a safety risk as a dam with a storage capacity exceeding 50,000m³ (50 megalitres) of water, whether the water contains other substances or not, and having a vertical wall height of more than five meters, measured from the downstream base.

“Dam owners are required to update their details, if already registered and submit registration and classification forms, if not yet registered. Forms can be downloaded from the department’s website at www.dws.gov.za/dso or collected from the nearest departmental offices,” Ramokopa said.

Safety inspections

The department enforces compliance for dam owners to conduct safety inspections at least every five years, where dam owners are required to arrange for the execution of a formal dam safety inspection by an Approved Professional Person (APP).

Ramokopa noted that when carrying out the five-yearly safety evaluation, the APP will conduct a flood frequency analysis to check whether the dam is able to route through different flood occurrences.

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“This helps the department’s dam safety office in knowing beforehand whether the dam would be overtopped, should a certain size of a 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.

“In addition to the dam safety regulations, dam owners must abide by the department’s dam safety office monitoring inspections to ensure that dam owners implement recommendations by APPs, once the dam safety evaluations are received,” Ramokopa explained.

He said failure to implement the APPs recommendations, especially when findings indicate that the dam may not be safe and has the potential to fail or cause loss of life, a directive is issued to compel the dam owners to comply.

Non-compliance risks

Ramokopa issued a stern warning to dam owners who fail to comply with the regulations, emphasising that the department will not hesitate to take punitive measures to ensure compliance with the law.

“Dam owners are bound by law to comply and 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 emphasised.

The department is currently rolling out 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.

The dam registration campaign is also aimed at maintaining an accurate database of dam ownership and safety compliance for effective regulation and risk management.