Government has urged farmers to include relevant technical documents in their applications for water use licenses. This will enable the department of water and sanitation to meet their new 90-day turnaround time.
Speaking to up-and-coming farmers in Pretoria last week, Tsunduka Khoza, the acting chief director: water use license management, also asked farmers to use the e-WULAAS application and authorisation system.
“We are in the teething process of implementing the 90 days’ turnaround time of issuing licenses [and] we are confident that with the assistant of Operation Vulindlela from the presidency, we will be able to issue those licenses within the stipulated time,” he said.
Technical documents
When applying for water use licenses, farmers are advised to include technical documents to ensure that it can be fast-tracked. This includes a master layout plan, agricultural activity report, methods of irrigation, groundwater report, plough certificate, soil sustainability study, and civil design drawings.
In their interaction with the department of water and sanitation, young farmers described the process of acquiring water use licenses as an excessively complicated administrative procedure hindering their growth and development.
“We can never become commercial farmers without EIA and WULA and those processes are too technical and take a great deal of time,” said livestock farmer Kagiso Murwa.
Meanwhile, government has called on all water use license applicants with technical challenges to contact e-WULAAS Technical support on 012 336 8840 or via email to e-wulaascalls@dws.gov.za.
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