The tasks of managing and protecting South Africaâs water resources are being
performed by the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), although the
requirement to protect water resources are also entrenched in the policies and acts of
other departments. DWAF has also recognized over the past ten years the importance of
international co-operation with regards to water issues.
As part of South Africaâs commitment to the realization of Agenda 21 and related
international water management commitments, the South African Department of Water
Affairs and Forestry has committed itself to participating in the Global Surface Water
Quality Monitoring Programme. The programme falls under the management of the
United Nations Environmental Programme and is administrated by the UN Global
Environmental Monitoring System/Water Programme (GEMS/Water).
The aim of the study was to develop a strategy that would enable SA to effectively
participate in this global water quality monitoring programme, by making use of existing
programmes and infrastructure. A very important aspect of this study was also to test the
scientific and operational ability of SA to honour this commitment, as the submission of
unreliable and irrelevant data for use in international reports by the UN can lead to
embarrassment on a political level.
Clear objectives, based on international requirements, were formulated to serve as
the basis for the design of a scientifically sound monitoring system. Three different types
of monitoring data, namely global river flux, global trends, global baseline data were
identified as the main focus areas.
A wide variety of techniques such as statistical analyses of national water quality
data, specialist workshops, meetings with international data users, geographic
information system (GIS), performance auditing of existing monitoring programmes and
extensive field visits were used to design a monitoring system that would enable SA to
meet the set objectives. Special attention was also given to the design of a
comprehensive ISO 9001:2000 based quality management system and operational
structures that would ensure the production and submission of reliable data in a
sustainable manner. The importance of producing a documented monitoring strategy
cannot be over emphasized. Such a strategy must clearly link the information needs with
monitoring objectives, which in turn must be clearly linked to the design of the
monitoring programme
During the design process a number of potential shortcomings in the existing
systems and programmes were identified and specific recommendations are made. Some
of the main recommendations related to the implementation of a quality management
system for new and existing national monitoring programmes, placement of sampling
sites, alteration of sampling frequencies and expansion of monitoring variables currently
being tested for.
It was finally concluded that South Africa does have the ability to honour their
commitment to the UN GEMS/Water Programme, provided that the recommendations
emanating from this study are implemented.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-09262006-090559 |
| Date | 26 September 2006 |
| Creators | van Niekerk, Harold |
| Contributors | Dr JC Roos |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-09262006-090559/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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