Your application for a water use licence will be taken in by the Regional Office of the Department of Water and Sanitation. The Regional Office will charge a licence processing fee, and will do an initial assessment in the Rgional Office. Your licence application will then be transferred to the Head Office for further processing. The following diagramme outlines the process that will be followed.

If you want to start using water, or expand your existing use of water, you will probably need a licence to do so. Licences are also needed to;

Store water For new commercial forests Impeding or diverting the flow in a river Engaging in controlled activities Discharging waste to any water resource Disposing of waste in a way which could affect the water resource

Disposing of heated water Altering the bed, banks course or characteristics of the water resource Removing, discharging or disposing of water found underground and For some recreational uses

Please contact your Regional DWS Office if you are unsure if your use of water use needs a licence.

If you need a licence for your water use, you will need to apply to your Regional Office of the Department of Water and Sanitation. If a Catchment Management Agency is in place they may be able to issue the licence. Licence application forms can be downloaded from the Water Use Registration and Licensing page.

There are generally 6 steps to processing any licence. These steps aim to test the application against the principle of "beneficial use in the public interest", and specifically against Section 27 of the National Water Act (NWA) [PDF - 239 KB]. These steps are;

Step 1 - Pre-position and validation. This is done when your licence application is received, and is used to check if everything needed to process the licence is available. You will be asked to provide missing information, and may get initial feedback before you pay your application fee (R 114.00 in 2007) - so you can decide whether to continue.
Step 2 - Initial assessment and grouping. This includes a quick assessment of the possible impacts and benefits of the proposed water use. In some cases a simple set of questions will be used to help make this assessment. You can use the Screening Tool to do your own pre-assessments.
Step 3 - Regional Assessment. This step is done in the regional office where you made your application. The regional office gathers all the information required to make a decision on whether to approve the application, and makes a recommendation to the national office.
Step 4 - Evaluation by the National Office. Your application is then evaluated by specialist groups. These groups also make recommendations on the application. The application is then submitted to the Chief Director: Water Use for a decision.
Step 5 - Decision by the Chief Director: Water Use. After considering all the relevant information, the Chief Director: Water Use will make a decision on whether to approve the application.
Step 6 - Implementation. Once a decision has been made, the Rgional Office will be informed, and they can start with implementing the licence. They will then inform you of the outcome of the application, and if approved will issue you the licence as well as highlighting any conditions that might be attached to your water use.

Your licence can take anything from 3 to 12 months to process, depending on the complexity of the licence, its benefits to the nation, and its possible impacts. Generally, low impact, high value licences will be processed quicker. You may also be asked, at any stage, to provide more information, or to advertise the proposed water use, and to invite interested and affected parties to comment.

A licence cannot be issued for a period longer than 40 years, but may be issued for shorter periods if necessary.

>> Water Use Registration and Licensing forms