INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF DECISIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND SANITATION TO ISSUE A WATER USE LICENSE TO KIPOWER (PTY) LTD, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE

An independent review finds that the Water Use License issued to KiPower (Pty) Ltd by the South African Department of Water and Sanitation is legally and technically flawed. The review concludes that the DWS failed to correctly identify and authorise necessary water uses, provided incorrect property and location data, and included compliance specifications that are largely invalid or unmeasurable. Furthermore, the DWS is accused of ignoring critical resource quality objectives for the Wilge River and attempting to shift historic mining remediation liabilities to KiPower, rendering the decision to issue the license unreasonable and an error in law.

• The Water Use License (WUL) issued to KiPower on 20 February 2017 is not an effective instrument for water governance because it fails to correctly authorise the necessary water uses and contains legally invalid compliance specifications.
• The WUL contains significant errors in the identification of water uses: 27% of listed activities are not water uses under section 21 of the NWA, and 42% are the responsibility of other entities (Delmas Coal or Ikhwezi Mining) rather than KiPower.
• There are nine specific water uses required for KiPower's activities that were not authorised in the WUL, including the storage of water in the ADF 'Clean water dam' and various discharges of 'clean water' into the Wilge River and surrounding veld.
• The WUL fails to properly describe the properties, locations, and metrics of the authorised water uses, rendering the authorisations legally and technically incorrect.
• A technical evaluation of the 204 identified compliance specifications found that only 33 (16%) are legal and valid under the NWA and PAJA, though these still relate to incorrectly authorised water uses.
• The DWS failed to consider critical factors required by section 27 of the NWA, including Resource Quality Objectives (RQOs) for the Wilge River and the effect of the water use on other users and water resources.
• The WUL's monitoring requirements are scientifically deficient, lacking limit values for comparison, omitting essential variables like Dissolved Oxygen for in-stream activities, and containing incorrect coordinates for monitoring locations.
• The DWS appears to have used the WUL to shift remediation liabilities for historic mining pollution from Delmas Coal and Ikhwezi Colliery to KiPower.
• The decision to issue the WUL was unreasonable and lacked a sufficient evidentiary basis, as the DWS requested critical information (such as a Water Management Plan) as a condition of the license rather than considering it before making the decision.
• The DWS failed to address the applicability of GN R.704 regulations regarding the protection of water resources from mining activities, and the WUL contains no reference to required exemptions.

APA

Bosman, C. (2017). INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF DECISIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND SANITATION TO ISSUE A WATER USE LICENSE TO KIPOWER (PTY) LTD, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE. Centre for Environmental Rights. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Annexure-I-CBS-WUL-Review.pdf?x21779

Chicago

Bosman, Carin. INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF DECISIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND SANITATION TO ISSUE A WATER USE LICENSE TO KIPOWER (PTY) LTD, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE. Centre for Environmental Rights, 2017. https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Annexure-I-CBS-WUL-Review.pdf?x21779.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bosman |first1=Carin |title=INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF DECISIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND SANITATION TO ISSUE A WATER USE LICENSE TO KIPOWER (PTY) LTD, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE |publisher=Centre for Environmental Rights |date=31 August 2017 |url=https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Annexure-I-CBS-WUL-Review.pdf?x21779 |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bosman2017independent, author = {Bosman, Carin}, title = {{INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF DECISIONS BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND SANITATION TO ISSUE A WATER USE LICENSE TO KIPOWER (PTY) LTD, MPUMALANGA PROVINCE}}, institution = {Centre for Environmental Rights}, year = {2017}, month = aug, url = {https://cer.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Annexure-I-CBS-WUL-Review.pdf?x21779}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }