Durban — Another farmer in KwaZulu-Natal has been fined more than a million rand for constructing an illegal dam for his farming business.
That was according to the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), which said that it continues to clamp down on illegal water use.
DWS said that an Estcourt farmer was made to pay a R1.5 million administrative fee for conducting illegal and unauthorised water use activities, in contravention of the National Water Act.
The farmer, Nigel Pres Blaker, owner of South Downs and Portion 1 Winchester farms, under the Pongola to uMzimkhulu Water Management Area, was found to have contravened and violated the water use licence by going beyond the boundary or limit when he constructed an illegal dam on his farm without the required water use authorisation, DWS said.
The department said that Blaker’s actions were discovered during a compliance monitoring inspection carried out back in 2018 and a notice of intention to issue a directive in terms of section 53(1) (a) of the National Water Act of 1998 was issued. A directive was later issued, instructing Blaker to cease unlawful water use and demolish the unlawful dam.
It said that after exhausting all the available avenues, the department opened a criminal case against the farmer with the SAPS in Estcourt.
DWS compliance, monitoring and enforcement director Thandi Mopai said that on January 19, the department entered into a mediation agreement with Blaker to pay a R1.5 million administrative fee for constructing an illegal dam for the illegal use of water in his farming business.
“On January 19, 2023, a mediation agreement between Mr Blaker and the department was reached and as a result, an administrative fee of R1.5 million was paid by Mr Blaker to the department’s account,” Mopai said.
She said that as part of mediation between the parties, it was agreed that Blaker would apply for water use authorisation for the illegal dam within 60 days and the department concurred that the application would be subjected to normal processes.
It is part of the ongoing work of the department as a regulator of the water and sanitation sector to uproot and eradicate all unauthorised and illegal use of water resources, she said.
Last month, another Estcourt farmer, Roy Clifford Braithwaite, was fined more than R1.7 million for illegally abstracting water from Wagendrift Dam to irrigate his crops without a water use licence.
Braithwaite owns Redlands Farm, which is situated upstream of the dam.
The dam, which is under the Bushmens River Government Water Scheme in the Pongola-Mtamvuma Catchment Management Area, provides water for domestic water supply, agriculture (irrigation) and industrial demands for the towns of Estcourt and Weenan.
A water use licence is a document that is issued by the department in terms of chapter 4 of the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998) that allows the user to undertake an activity triggered in terms of section 21 of the Water Act. Section 21 says a user is required to apply for authorisation to take water from water resources for any commercial activity.
Braithwaite was found to have contravened the afore-mentioned section of the regulation after the department uncovered an abstraction point on the bank of the dam with no flow meter and that it was illegally pumping water into Redlands Farm for irrigation of crops using centre pivots.
Daily News