Irrigation and Conservation of Water Act

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The Irrigation and Conservation of Water Act (German about: "Irrigation and Water Protection Act ") of the South African Union of 1912 was a law to regulate water rights in this country.

The Irrigation and Conservation of Water Act brought together the legal norms previously applicable in the individual colonies on the Cape, such as the Cape Irrigation Act (1906) and the Transvaal Irrigation Act (1908), now under one uniform legal norm . The primary aim of this legal act was the promotion of agricultural irrigation systems , the standardization of previous water rights and measures to store water before it flows naturally into the marine areas around South Africa. The Union Irrigation Act of 1910 can serve as a shell law for the further expression within its downstream special law. Both laws created the legal basis for the then established Irrigation Department , from which the national ministry Department of Water Affairs - DWA (later Water Affairs and Forestry - DWAF or Water and Sanitation - DWS) emerged. The newly founded authority quickly created a nationwide network of offices to meet the need for supra-regional measures in state and private water management. Important events for the expansion of the authority were the extremely low rainfall years 1915/1916 in the Cape Province with its devastating consequences, as well as the decline in ostrich farming , which had become fashionable since around 1880 , which ran parallel to the First World War , which resulted in excessive flood irrigation using drainage weirs.

Legislative consequences

A fundamental amendment to the current water law was only made after 1948, i.e. several years after apartheid was declared a principle of government, with the Water Act ( Act No. 54/1956 ). This law brought about a stronger alignment of the water use rules in favor of the increasingly pronounced economic focuses in South Africa, agriculture, mining and industry.

Between 1914 and 1955, 25 Union laws followed (without counting further amendment laws) to shape water law in general and for individual geographical regions or specific water use issues in the country.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Traugott Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape . Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1966, pp. 155–156
  2. ^ A b Johann Tempelhoff: The Water Act, No. 54 of 1956 and the first phase of apartheid in South Africa (1948-1960) . In: Water History . Vol. 9 (2017), Issue 2, pp. 189–213, ISSN 1877-7236, online at www.researchgate.net (English)
  3. ↑ Molter: Water balance and irrigation agriculture in the Cape . 1966, p. 155
  4. ^ Dev D. Tewari: An Analysis of Evolution of Water Rights in South African Society: An Account of Three Hundred Years . online at www.dlc.dlib.indiana.edu (English, PDF document pp. 14–15), In: Water SA (Ed. Water Research Commission (WRC)), Vol. 35 No. 5 (Oct. 2009) Pretoria, ISSN 1816-7950 (online version); Alternatively: at www.scielo.org.za . (English)
  5. ^ Dev D. Tewari: An Analysis of Evolution of Water Rights in South African Society . PDF document p. 35