Water quality monitoring is important in South Africa

Posted by gondwanagroup on September 26th, 2016

Water is a very important commodity for everyday use all over the world. Many industries use water for use whereas water is a waste product in many industries. In South Africa, the National Water Act of 1998 regulates water use for the industries. It regulates the amount of water, industries can use for their daily requirements. It stipulates where you can use the water and how you use the water waste products. It stipulates the methods of efficient disposal of water. This Act regulates the water quality as well.

Water has great utility in the mining industry, construction as well as manufacturing industries. As these industries use water on a large scale, they waste water at the same time in large quantities. The law stipulates that the companies should be aware of the water quality as well as the amount of water it generates as waste.

This monitoring of the water quality is very important, as water is a scarce commodity in today’s times. This is in spite of water occupying over 70% of the Earth’s surface. There are many companies in South Africa engaged in the activity of water quality monitoring.

The role of the water quality monitoring companies:

The services provided by these companies are as follows. They segregate the type of monitoring into surface water monitoring and ground water monitoring.

Surface water monitoring concept: The industries in South Africa depends mainly on the surface water resources. However, there are every chance of the contamination of the surface water resources. You see industrial wastes, agricultural wastes, as well as chemical wastes polluting the surface water resources. The agricultural wastes include the irrigation wash offs, the fertilizers, and the pesticides. The chemical wastes include the acids and salts generated by the mining industry in particular. These wastes contaminate the water and make it unfit for human as well as industrial consumption. The role of these water quality monitoring companies is to keep a strict watch on such contaminating activities. They have to ensure that the quality of water remains safe for consumption.

Ground water monitoring concept: People have a wrong notion that there could be no contamination of ground water. It is not the case. There are many ways of contaminating ground water as well. The rain seeps into the soil taking along with it the charcoal and other chemical pollutants. This can contaminate the ground water as well. The ground contains natural salts. Hence, you can find the ground water containing high levels of salt impurities at many places. These impurities make the water unfit for use. The role of these companies is to ensure that the industrial and chemical pollutants do not make their way into the ground water resources.

Issuance of the Water Use License applications: The water resources situation is grim in South Africa. Hence, the industries that use water for commercial use must have a license allowing them to do so. The Government has placed restrictions on the access of water by these industries. Hence, registering for the licenses is essential. These companies engaged in the water quality monitoring issues the licenses for such companies to use water for their commercial use.