Documenting the polluters and establishing a permit system for major polluters is one important step but the successful implementation of the management system is affected by such decisions as monitoring, fees and charges and the possibility of effective action for non-compliance (Box 6.4).
Generally for resource constrained basin organisations it is better to:
• Use the permit conditions to require self monitoring and reporting thus shifting much of the burden to the polluters;
• Use fees and charges to fund the pollution control system;
• Use administrative tools to punish offenders rather than prosecution which can be expensive and not often successful.
Always check strategy decisions against resources and revise the strategy rather than think additional resources will suddenly be made available.
4. Planning and Implementation
From the strategy we derive the action plan, a list of actions proposed for implementation in order to achieve the water management objective. Pollution control will have no significance if the plan is not implemented and phased implementation may be necessary.
The design of phases may consider:
• Cohesion. Some actions may cluster together;
• Conditionality. Actions to provide basic conditions e.g. creating legislative framework to establish the enabling environment and institutional structures;
• Dependency. Actions that must precede others, staff recruitment before staff training can start; and
• Urgency. Actions are ranked as high priority.
Key management tools and instruments used for implementing the pollution control programme are briefly listed below. Each tool can be used in a variety of ways according to the circumstances. The manager's task is to decide which tool(s) will most adequately solve the present water pollution problem and to ensure that the selected tool(s) are made available and operational within the appropriate institutions.
a) Regulations and management procedures
Regulations are the supporting rules of the relevant legislation. Only regulations that are enforceable should actually be implemented otherwise they should be amended or abandoned. Management procedures define a process for consistent response in decision making. e.g. procedures to apply for a pollution permit.