The Department of Water and Sanitation to host public participation on the 3rd edition of the National Water Resource Strategy

The Department of Water and Sanitation, led by the Director-General, Dr Sean Phillips, will hold the first public consultation workshop on the third edition of the National Water Resources Strategy (NWRS-3) on Monday 22nd of August, at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria.

The Draft National Water Resource Strategy III (NWRS-3) has been approved by Cabinet for public consultation and a notice was issued through the Government Gazette, Notice No: 4713 on 29 July 2022. The NWRS-3 is open for public comments over a period of 90 days from the date of publication of the notice.

The NWRS is currently the legal instrument for implementing or operationalising the National Water Act (Act 36 of 1998) and it is thus binding on all authorities and institutions implementing the Act. It is the primary mechanism to manage water across all sectors towards achieving national government’s development objectives.

The first NWRS was published in 2004 and the second edition (NWRS-2) was published in 2013 and was the blueprint for water resources management in South Africa.

DG Phillips and other members of the DWS Executive Management will lead the workshops of the NWRS-3 which builds on the National Water Resources Strategy editions 1 and 2.

Source: Government of South Africa