3.3(1)
Section 60 of the Waste Act obliges the Minister to establish a national waste information system for recording, collection, management and analysis of waste data and information. The South African Waste Information System (SAWIS) plays a vital role in the management of waste and implementation of the NWMS by addressing the lack of reliable data on the waste sector.
3.3(2)
SAWIS will provide a mechanism for obtaining accurate waste balance information through online submission of data by waste facilities, municipal waste service providers and the private sector, as well as vertical integration of information systems between national and provincial Waste Information Systems (WISs), and horizontal integration with other waste regulation and information systems.
3.3(3)
SAWIS will provide information that can be used to inform the planning and development of Integrated Waste Management Plans and Industry Waste Management Plans, and to evaluate their implementation. The information in SAWIS must inform public health and safety management, and assist in the assessment of the impact of waste on health and the environment. It must also provide information on waste to educators and researchers for the purposes of raising public awareness and information.
3.3(4)
While the process of establishing SAWIS was initiated as part of the 1999 NWMS, the new Waste Act provides a legislative framework for SAWIS, including compulsory reporting to SAWIS. Chapter 6 of the Waste Act establishes the following requirements of the national waste information system:
3.3(5)
The Act specifies that the Waste Information System can include any information required for the effective administration of the Waste Act, but specifically mentions that SAWIS may be used to record:
3.3(6)
While Section 62 of the Act provides for the optional creation of provincial waste information systems, in practice these present significant integration problems and risk fragmenting waste data. Furthermore, they will defeat the desirable objective of creating a nationally unified framework of reporting requirements for business and local government authorities. For this reason, the establishment of new provincial waste information systems is not recommended.
3.3(7)
Where provincial waste information systems already exist, or are already planned, they should include all the information required by the national system. To avoid the need for multiple reporting, the Minister may exempt entities reporting to a provincial system from requirements to report to the national system once mechanisms have been established for replicating the information to the national system. In the long run, it is desirable that existing provincial and national systems are integrated into a single information system.
3.3(8)
The Minister and MECs have broad powers to require any person to report to the SAWIS or provincial systems any information that is reasonably required for the purposes of the waste information system. The requirement to report to SAWIS will also form part of the licensing conditions for listed activities, and for listed activities that do not require licenses and are subject to norms and standards. Where information is required on activities or facilities that do not fall into these categories, Section 63 of the Waste Act will be used to provide notice to the relevant person or organ of state of requirements to report to SAWIS.
3.3(9)
SAWIS is to be implemented within a new technology framework for information systems that DEA will pilot in early 2010. An overview of the new system is provided in Section 5 of the strategy. Horizontal integration of SAWIS with other waste regulation and information systems is required for licensing procedures (currently captured on the National Environmental Authorisation System (NEAS)). This will be facilitated by the new framework, which is focused on integrating business procedures on the back of a single underlying data base, to which the current implementation of SAWIS will be transferred.
3.3(10)
An integrated procedure for licensing and registration on SAWIS is desirable, but does not exempt licensees from separately registering with SAWIS. It is also important to note that facilities that fail to meet licensing requirements or are granted exemptions from licensing requirements will still be required to register with SAWIS.
3.3(11)
As a key element of such integration, a standard categorisation system is required for waste information submitted to SAWIS and which is aligned with reporting requirements stipulated in licensing. The categorisation system currently used by SAWIS is rudimentary, and an interim measure. SAWIS will use the categorisation system developed as part of the Waste Classification and Management System (WCMS).
3.3(12)
The current focus of SAWIS is on end-of-pipe waste data i.e. data from facilities dealing with waste disposal, recycling, recovery, and import and export of waste. While an incremental approach to implementation of SAWIS will be continued, the existing implementation plan for SAWIS will be revised to take into account functionality that will be exposed by the new architecture for information systems.
3.3(13)
The National Waste Management Officer will play the role of the Waste Information Authority as required by the Waste Act.
3.3(14)
Access by the public and industry to information stored on SAWIS is considered vital and is the quid pro quo for industry submitting information onto the database. It is also a statutory requirement in terms of the Waste Act. However, safeguards will be put in place to ensure that while companies have access to their own information, and aggregated information for their industrial sector, proprietary company information is not exposed to third parties.