Funding for water resources monitoring
The interest and benefit of monitoring water resources is shared between the national government and the stakeholders of the river basin and should therefore be sourced from them. River basin organisations may have the power to charge an administrative fee to water users that may partly or completely cover the costs of monitoring.
4. Monitoring of Water Use
4.1 Monitoring abstractions
Water is normally abstracted through pumping of surface or groundwater or by gravity from rivers/ streams. Measuring equipment exists to directly measure piped and channel flow but since these measurements are associated with costs the normal way of continuously measuring water use is based on:
Pump capacity and time of operation;
Area of irrigated land;
Time and level of gate opening for channel intakes; or
Fees generated from sold water.
A combination of self monitoring plus external supervision is the normal monitoring procedure. The monitoring is thus very cost-efficient. The disadvantage with the self-monitoring methods is that the uncertainties may be very large with a tendency to under-report. Control measurements by the RBO or local water user groups may be enough to limit abuse of allocation permits or unauthorised abstractions.
4.2 Funding of water use monitoring
The self-monitoring of water use should be a condition for an approved water permit and the cost should be covered by the water user. The funding of control measurements is normally covered by the RBO but funded from water allocation fees.
5. Monitoring of Pollution and Water Quality
5.1 Pollution
Similar to the monitoring of water resources and use, pollution can be measured directly at the source and indirectly in the downstream river reaches. For any stakeholder given a permit to discharge pollution to the river it should be with a condition to monitor the load to the river.
Ideally a permit for the disposal of waste into a waterbody should state the permitted volume and permitted contaminant levels of the discharge. The permit holder has the responsibility to measure, and report on, the volumes and quality of waste discharged and also the quality of the receiving water upstream and downstream of the discharge point. The RBO is then relieved of much of the monitoring burden and can focus on spot checks to verify that the reports from the permit holder are accurate. The monitoring system should be such that non-compliance with the permit can be identified and appropriate action taken.Avenues for the community to report pollution problems should be clear and complaints responded to promptly. This will engender trust in the system and improve compliance.