UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HES4810: Impact Mitigation and Management
Assignment 3 | Semester 2, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HES4810
Module Code:
Impact Mitigation and Management
Module Name:
Water for People and Progress: Impact
Essay Topic:
Mitigation Across African Environmental
Systems
Assignment 3
Assignment Number:
15 September 2026
Due Date:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for Impact Mitigation and Management, UNISA 2026
,UNISA | HES4810 Impact Mitigation and Management – Assignment 3
Question 1: Water for People and Progress
Water Week 2026 falls under the theme "Water for People and Progress", a framing that ties
water security directly to human development, climate resilience and ecosystem protection
(OECD, 2021). South Africa provides a useful lens for this question because it combines a
rights-based constitutional order with a dedicated water statute and an overarching envi-
ronmental management act, while still experiencing the infrastructural and demographic
pressures common across the continent.
1.1 Legislative Instruments and Water Security
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Section 24 entrenches an environ-
mental right, obliging the state to protect the environment through reasonable legislative and
other measures for present and future generations, while section 27(1)(b) creates a right of
access to sufficient water. Read together, these provisions constitutionalise water security
rather than leaving it to ordinary policy discretion, which gives litigants and civil society a
durable basis to challenge under-provision. The strength of this framework is its supremacy:
any statute inconsistent with sections 24 or 27 is invalid. Its weakness is that both rights are
subject to progressive realisation within available resources, so the Constitution sets a direc-
tion rather than a guaranteed volume of water, and enforcement still depends on the ordinary
legislation discussed below.
National Water Act 36 of 1998 (NWA). The Act repealed the riparian-rights system of the
1956 Water Act and replaced it with public trusteeship: no one owns water, and the state
acts as custodian on behalf of all citizens. Its guiding principles are sustainability and equity,
recognising the basic human needs of present and future generations and the need to protect
water resources while enabling social and economic development (National Water Act 36 of
1998). The Act operationalises this through catchment management agencies, the Reserve
(the water set aside for basic human needs and ecological functioning before any licence is
granted), and a licensing system for water use. This is a strong projective instrument because
the Reserve is a non-negotiable first call on water, ahead of commercial or agricultural users.
Its main limitation in practice is capacity: many catchment management agencies remain
under-resourced, and licence enforcement is uneven, so protection on paper does not always
translate into protection of resource quality on the ground.
National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA). NEMA supplies the frame-
Page 2 of 22
, UNISA | HES4810 Impact Mitigation and Management – Assignment 3
work principles that bind all organs of state, including that development must be socially, en-
vironmentally and economically sustainable, that pollution and degradation must be avoided
or minimised, and that a risk-averse and cautious approach must be applied. It is NEMA, not
the NWA, that mandates environmental impact assessment for water-related infrastructure
such as dams, bulk pipelines, wastewater works and feedlots, making it the main procedural
gatekeeper for water security. NEMA’s strength is its integrative reach across all environ-
mental media and all organs of state; its weakness is that it operates mainly ex ante, at the
authorisation stage, and depends on subsequent compliance monitoring and enforcement by
provincial and national departments that are frequently under-capacitated.
Constitution of
the Republic of
South Africa,
1996 (ss 24, 27)
Water Services Act
108 of 1997 (service
delivery mandate)
National Water Act 36 of
1998 and NEMA 107 of 1998
(resource protection, EIA)
Municipal by-laws and catchment rules
(local water services, effluent standards)
Figure 1: Hierarchy of South African water-security legislation
Together, the three instruments create a layered system: the Constitution sets the normative
floor, the NWA manages the resource itself through allocation and the Reserve, and NEMA
governs the environmental authorisation of any activity that might compromise water quality
or availability. The main structural weakness across all three is implementation capacity
rather than legal design (ASSAf, 2023).
1.2 Development Pressures on Water Quality Resources
Five development-related pressures recur across African water systems.
1. Rapid urbanisation and population growth. Unplanned settlement expansion outpaces
sanitation and stormwater infrastructure, and untreated or partially treated effluent en-
ters watercourses; sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population living under perennial water
shortage is projected to reach roughly 162 million by 2050 (OECD, 2021).
2. Ageing and under-maintained wastewater infrastructure. Many municipal treatment
works were designed for smaller populations and now discharge non-compliant effluent,
Page 3 of 22
College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HES4810: Impact Mitigation and Management
Assignment 3 | Semester 2, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HES4810
Module Code:
Impact Mitigation and Management
Module Name:
Water for People and Progress: Impact
Essay Topic:
Mitigation Across African Environmental
Systems
Assignment 3
Assignment Number:
15 September 2026
Due Date:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for Impact Mitigation and Management, UNISA 2026
,UNISA | HES4810 Impact Mitigation and Management – Assignment 3
Question 1: Water for People and Progress
Water Week 2026 falls under the theme "Water for People and Progress", a framing that ties
water security directly to human development, climate resilience and ecosystem protection
(OECD, 2021). South Africa provides a useful lens for this question because it combines a
rights-based constitutional order with a dedicated water statute and an overarching envi-
ronmental management act, while still experiencing the infrastructural and demographic
pressures common across the continent.
1.1 Legislative Instruments and Water Security
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. Section 24 entrenches an environ-
mental right, obliging the state to protect the environment through reasonable legislative and
other measures for present and future generations, while section 27(1)(b) creates a right of
access to sufficient water. Read together, these provisions constitutionalise water security
rather than leaving it to ordinary policy discretion, which gives litigants and civil society a
durable basis to challenge under-provision. The strength of this framework is its supremacy:
any statute inconsistent with sections 24 or 27 is invalid. Its weakness is that both rights are
subject to progressive realisation within available resources, so the Constitution sets a direc-
tion rather than a guaranteed volume of water, and enforcement still depends on the ordinary
legislation discussed below.
National Water Act 36 of 1998 (NWA). The Act repealed the riparian-rights system of the
1956 Water Act and replaced it with public trusteeship: no one owns water, and the state
acts as custodian on behalf of all citizens. Its guiding principles are sustainability and equity,
recognising the basic human needs of present and future generations and the need to protect
water resources while enabling social and economic development (National Water Act 36 of
1998). The Act operationalises this through catchment management agencies, the Reserve
(the water set aside for basic human needs and ecological functioning before any licence is
granted), and a licensing system for water use. This is a strong projective instrument because
the Reserve is a non-negotiable first call on water, ahead of commercial or agricultural users.
Its main limitation in practice is capacity: many catchment management agencies remain
under-resourced, and licence enforcement is uneven, so protection on paper does not always
translate into protection of resource quality on the ground.
National Environmental Management Act 107 of 1998 (NEMA). NEMA supplies the frame-
Page 2 of 22
, UNISA | HES4810 Impact Mitigation and Management – Assignment 3
work principles that bind all organs of state, including that development must be socially, en-
vironmentally and economically sustainable, that pollution and degradation must be avoided
or minimised, and that a risk-averse and cautious approach must be applied. It is NEMA, not
the NWA, that mandates environmental impact assessment for water-related infrastructure
such as dams, bulk pipelines, wastewater works and feedlots, making it the main procedural
gatekeeper for water security. NEMA’s strength is its integrative reach across all environ-
mental media and all organs of state; its weakness is that it operates mainly ex ante, at the
authorisation stage, and depends on subsequent compliance monitoring and enforcement by
provincial and national departments that are frequently under-capacitated.
Constitution of
the Republic of
South Africa,
1996 (ss 24, 27)
Water Services Act
108 of 1997 (service
delivery mandate)
National Water Act 36 of
1998 and NEMA 107 of 1998
(resource protection, EIA)
Municipal by-laws and catchment rules
(local water services, effluent standards)
Figure 1: Hierarchy of South African water-security legislation
Together, the three instruments create a layered system: the Constitution sets the normative
floor, the NWA manages the resource itself through allocation and the Reserve, and NEMA
governs the environmental authorisation of any activity that might compromise water quality
or availability. The main structural weakness across all three is implementation capacity
rather than legal design (ASSAf, 2023).
1.2 Development Pressures on Water Quality Resources
Five development-related pressures recur across African water systems.
1. Rapid urbanisation and population growth. Unplanned settlement expansion outpaces
sanitation and stormwater infrastructure, and untreated or partially treated effluent en-
ters watercourses; sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population living under perennial water
shortage is projected to reach roughly 162 million by 2050 (OECD, 2021).
2. Ageing and under-maintained wastewater infrastructure. Many municipal treatment
works were designed for smaller populations and now discharge non-compliant effluent,
Page 3 of 22
