The Department of Water and Sanitation has given dam owners across the country who own unregistered dams, to register them within the next 60 days, to ensure dam safety compliance as required by law.
The department said the registration process aims to ensure the safety of dams and reduce risks to the public, property and water resources.
This comes as Minister Pemmy Majodina published a gazette notice calling for the registration of existing dams with a safety risk.
The registration process aims to ensure the safety of dams and reduce risks to the public, property, and water resources.
“The Department considers a dam with a safety risk as a dam with a storage capacity exceeding 50,000 m³ (50 megalitres) of water, whether the water contains other substances or not, and having a vertical wall height of more than 5 meters, measured from the downstream base,” said Wally Ramokopa, Head of Specialist Unit: Dam Safety Regulation within the Department.
Ramokopa said the department has embarked on a mass multimedia campaign to raise awareness about the importance of dam registration, with the aim of ensuring that all dams with safety risks meet compliance standards to reduce potential harm to people, property, and the environment.
The department highlighted that the dam registration campaign is also aimed at maintaining an accurate database of dam ownership and safety compliance for effective regulation and risk management.
In September 2022, three people died and hundreds were displaced in Jagersfontein, Free State, when the mine tailings dam collapsed, sending mud to the community and damaged several houses.
In addition, 14 people were hospitalised and 600 others were housed at a community centre and local churches, when three dams collapsed in Dassenberg, Chatsworth and Riverlands in the Western Cape three months ago.
Ramokopa said the department enforces compliance for dam owners to conduct safety inspections at least every five years, and as such, dam owners are required to arrange for the execution of a formal dam safety inspection by an Approved Professional Person (APP).
“When carrying out the five yearly safety evaluation, the APP will conduct a flood frequency analysis to check whether the dam is able to route through different flood occurrences.
This helps the Department’s Dam Safety Office in knowing beforehand whether the dam would be overtopped should a certain size of a flood occur or potential damage of the dam.
The Department’s Dam Safety Office then receives reports from APPs which contain information pertaining to the flood handling capability and structural behaviour of dams,” highlighted Ramokopa.
Failure to implement the APPs recommendations, especially when findings indicate that the dam may not be safe and have the potential to fail or cause loss of life, the Dam Safety Office is able to issue directives to compel dam owners to comply.
Ramokopa warned that punitive measures would be taken against owners who don’t comply.
“Dam owners are bound by law to comply and to also implement recommendations as made by an APPs after inspections are conducted.
To prevent the loss of life and safeguard the environment, we will not even blink twice to ensure that dam owners do what is required of them by law,” emphasised Ramokopa.
