Government’s prohibition on transferring water came under sharp attack during a meeting between a delegation of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) and Agri SA. DWAF is opposed to free trade in water rights, citing its mandate to redress imbalances from the past as expressed in the Water Act, said Agri SA president Johannes Möller. “So now we have a situation were water BEE and agricultural are done independently and it simply does not make sense. Why would we help establish a new farmer on agricultural land if we don’t also make provision for his water needs?” he asked.
“We invited the department a number of times to jointly develop the codes for the Agricultural Charter, but it was not interested,” Möller said. H owever, some progress was made, said, referring to the agreement between Agri SA and DWAF in which applications for trade in water rights that had not yet been processed, would be evaluated within the context of existing legislation with a view to urgent finalisation. Attention would be given in working groups to find ways for water rights reform to take place within the ambit of the industry’s charter.
With the help of a case study, the extent to which irrigation farmers already contribute to would be quantified, and guidelines would be developed for future trade in water rights, Möller said. Currently water rights for agriculture exist for 7 000ha of irrigation along the Orange River and another 3 000ha in the Eastern Cape. T here are also several old irrigation schemes that have fallen into disuse that could be revived once more for agriculture.
Möller pointed out that there is enough water, as well as the relevant rights to it, not to hamstring commercial farmers that have paid for their water rights and need to be able to trade it on a free market. “If this matter cannot be solved amicably and in reasonable time, we will resort to legal recourse,” he concluded. – Wouter Kriel
