Development of regulations for water care works and process personnel

It is well known that South Africa is a water scarce country and that return of high quality effluents to the water resources is essential. In terms of the National Water Act, 1998 (Act 36 of 1998) the National Government has public trusteeship of the nation's waterresources and therefore, acting through the Minister, must ensure that water is protected, used, developed, conserved, managed and controlled in a sustainable and equitable manner, for the benefit of all persons and in accordance with its constitutionalmandate. For this reason and the sensitive nature of South Africa's water resources, it is necessary that water care works for both potable and wastewater treatment be managed to ensure that stipulated water quality standards are adhered to. Regulation No. 2834, in terms of the Water Act, 1956 (Act 54 of 1956) for the erection, enlargement, operation and registration of water care works, was promulgated in an attempt to ensure that operators with relevant qualifications were running the different classes of water care works. This regulation had its' shortcomings however, in the fact that it focussed more on qualifications and not competence and skill of process personnel. With the promulgation of the National Water Act of 1998 (Act 36 of 1998) it was felt that changes to the regulation were necessary. In terms of the South African Qualifications Authority Act of 1995 (SAQA) and the Skills Development Act of 1998 (SDA) persons must be trained and assessed using unit standards generated for each particular sector. In light of this unit standards have been developed to take into account recognition of prior learning as well as qualifications and competencies. This means that when a person achieves a unit standard the persons' ability to do a certain task is tested together with the persons understanding of the theory that underpins the task being done. The paper to follow sets out a draft regulation for both the classification of the Water Care Works as well as their process personnel. Water SA Vol. 30 (5) 2005: pp.155-157