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The National Water Resource Strategy (NWRS, 1st edition, 2004) suggests that more than half the catchments in South Africa are currently in an over-allocated position. All viable options to address the over-allocation are being considered. Some of these initiatives include; the removal of alien invasive plants (which consume large volumes of water relative to natural species), the adoption of Water Conservation and Water Demand Management options to improve water use efficiency, the control of illegal water use and where economically viable and environmentally acceptable the building of dams and/or inter-basin transfers.
The only way of verifying that each user gets his or her fair share of the available and allocated water, is through direct monitoring and measuring of abstraction and consumption. Monitoring techniques such as remote sensing that relies on satellite imagery cannot be used to verify that water users are complying with their water use entitlements. We have thus reached a situation in the history of the country where water meters, in association with other tools and methods, have become a have-to-have to enable water resource managers to ensure that water users are complying with water use entitlement conditions.
Ensuring that licensed water users comply with their license conditions is one very important consideration. However, another important consideration is the fact that the demand for water will continue to grow into the future. So unless new augmentation options (e.g. dams and/or inter-basin transfers) are developed to increase the yield (apportionable supply of water) in catchments, there will be a continued and ever-growing pressure to find ways with which to use the current water resources more efficiently, so that surplus water can be liberated, which can then be allocated to new water users without compromising economic growth.
Water Conservation (WC) is defined as "the minimisation of water loss or waste, the care and protection of water resources and the efficient and effective use of water", whereas Water Demand Management (WDM) is defined as "the adoption and implementation of a strategy or a programme by a water institution or consumer to influence the water demand and usage of water in order to meet any of the following objectives; economic efficiency, social development, social equity, environmental protection, sustainability of water supply and services, and political acceptability" (DWAF, 2007).
Water meters are an essential component of a suite of management tools and methods available to water resource managers, which used together appropriately and wisely, can enable and incentivise the uptake of WC & WDM initiatives by stakeholders. Water meters are nothing more than instruments that measure volumes of water used (diverted in this context).
Knowledge of the volumes of water used by various water users is valuable for the following reasons:
- Details of actual water use provide water users with details and trends of water use. Often water users are not sure of the exact quantities of water they use. This information is a logical starting point from which water users can evaluate the efficiency of their use relative to other users, and can track improvements (or reductions) in water use efficiency over time.
- Water resource managers can use the water use figures to undertake water audits, so as to ensure that various water users in a catchment are complying with their water use license conditions. Sound water resource management is essential for a few reasons, with one of the most important reasons being the fact that it instills confidence amongst water users. High confidence levels will promote investment by water users for the adoption of new and improved water use efficient technologies or crops. Sound water management will increase the certainty attached to water use licenses, and this will promote the water market (through which water use entitlements can be sold or leased from one user to another, in full or in part). Promoting the water market is a very powerful water management option, in that the market provides incentives for existing water users to continually seek ways with which to use water more efficiently. Sound water resource management will amplify the signals in the water market, and will enhance the sustainable exploration and adoption of WC & WDM options by existing water users.
- Water resource managers can also levy water use charges based on actual use (or a dual charge system with a flat fee component, and a variable component based on the actual use). This will also promote WC & WDM.
- Data from the water meters can be used to better understand the demand patterns by water users, and can be used to improve operational management, as well as planning initiatives by water resource managers.
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