Statutory regulation of tailings dams and the protection of the environment

Abstract

The regulation of tailings dams in South Africa remains an area of environmental law that requires immediate attention, considering that abandoned and unrehabilitated tailings dams are estimated to be 6000. This signifies a problem with the regulation and enforcement of the statutory regulation of tailings dams that did not start with the current regulatory regime. The historical account of the regulation of tailings dams reveals the history of fragmentation in the regulation of tailings dams, where the lack of legislation regulating tailings dams and mining waste was addressed through the establishment of committees to provide regulatory oversight of the different areas of environmental law that required environmental oversight such as pollution. In this regard the enactment of the Minerals Act 50 of 1991 laid the foundation for the regulation of tailings dams by providing for provisions to that effect and by introducing the principles of environmental law in legislation. Currently, tailings dams are regulated through legislations such as the MPRDA, NEMA and the NWA. The study concludes with a note on the role players of environmental law such as the Civil society organisations, institutions are important to the regulation and management of environmental tailings dams.