The Water Resources Management Act 24 of 2004 will change the water regime in
Namibia dramatically. Section 4 of the Water Resources Management Act provides
for this change by excluding private ownership of water from the new water law
dispensation.
This study focused on section 4 of the Water Resources Management Act and the
implication that this section will have on property rights in the Namibia. The
dissertation firstly outlines the historical development of ownership of water in
Namibia. It is indicated that private ownership of water was an established principle
under Roman-Dutch law. A further examination of Roman-Dutch law reveals that
surface water could be divided into private and public water. Public water belonged
to the whole nation, while ownership of private rivers was vested in the land owner.
Under South West Africa’s water legislation, the Irrigation and Water Conservation
Act 8 of 1912 and the Water Act 54 of 1956 maintained the distinction between
public and private water. However, the Water Act of 1956 expanded the definitions of
both public and private water, and acknowledged that the land owner where the
water found its source or flowed over, could exercise the exclusive use rights of such
water.
The Water Resources Management Act has been approved and published in the
Government Gazette. However, it has not yet come into force as a date for
commencement of the Act, as prescribed by section 138(1)(b), has not yet been
determined by the Minister. Once the Act is in force, the Water Act will be repealed
as a whole. Section 4 of the Water Resources Management Act will abolish the
private ownership of water in Namibia. This is clearly in violation of article 16 of the
Namibian Constitution of 1990, which provides for private ownership of water when
read with article 100. Therefore, the research concludes that the Water Resources
Management Act will dramatically affect property rights in Namibia. Under the Water
Resources Management Act there will be no private ownership of water, and the
affected person will have no recourse under the Act to claim compensation. / LLM (Environmental Law and Governance), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/11941 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Pinto, John Matthew Thomas |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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