Self-assessment
NEMA Self-Assessment (Environmental Management)
12 yes/no questions on the National Environmental Management Act and related environmental laws: the duty of care, environmental authorisations for listed activities, incidents, waste, air and water licences, and records. You get a score for each area and a list of gaps with what to do about each one.
1. Duty of care
1. Have you identified how your activities could cause significant pollution or degradation of the environment, across the life cycle of the activity?
(NEMA s28(1))
2. Do you take reasonable measures to prevent that pollution or degradation, or if it cannot be prevented, to stop, minimise and remedy it?
(NEMA s28(1))
3. Do you know that the duty can extend to anticipatory costs and that several responsible persons (for example the owner, the person in control and those who benefit) can be jointly liable?
The 2017 amendments extended section 28 to anticipatory costs, allowed municipal managers to issue directives, and provided for joint and several liability. (NEMA s28(4), s28(8))
2. Authorisations for listed activities
Answer Not applicable in this section if you do not build, expand or change anything that could be a listed activity.
1. Before you start a new activity or expand one, do you check it against the listing notices under the EIA Regulations to see whether it needs an environmental authorisation?
The 2014 EIA Regulations (GNR 982 to 985, amended in 2017) list activities that may not start without an authorisation. Starting one without it is an offence. (NEMA s24, s24F, EIA Regulations 2014)
2. Do you hold the environmental authorisations you need, comply with their conditions and keep a copy on site?
(NEMA s24, EIA Regulations)
3. If an activity started without authorisation, have you taken advice on the route to regularise it?
(NEMA s24G)
3. Incidents, waste, air and water
1. Do you have a plan for emergency incidents that could harm the environment, including who reports to the authorities and how quickly?
(NEMA s30)
2. Do you manage your waste (storage, collection, disposal, and recycling) and use licensed waste contractors and sites?
(National Environmental Management: Waste Act)
3. Do you hold an atmospheric emission licence if you run a listed activity that releases air pollution, and meet its limits?
(National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act)
4. Do you hold the water use licence or authorisation for any water you take, store, or discharge, and monitor it as required?
(National Water Act)
4. Records and responsibility
1. Do you assign a named person to manage environmental compliance, with the time and resources to do it?
(NEMA, good practice)
2. Do you keep records of your authorisations, monitoring, audits, incidents and complaints in one place?
(NEMA, EIA Regulations)
Sources
Turn these gaps into tracked tasks
Assign owners and due dates, keep the evidence, and show your progress to clients and auditors.