Electronic Water Use Licence Application and Authorisation System (e-WULAAS)

The National Water Act (NWA) (Act No 36 of 1998) [PDF - 239 KB] fundamentally reforms the law relating to water resources, recognising that water is a scarce and unevenly distributed national asset that belongs to the people of South Africa and provides the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) with the mandate to protect, use, develop, conserve, manage and control the country's water resources in an integrated manner.

The NWA therefore provides the legal basis upon which to develop tools and the means to effect this mandate.

One of the means is the authorisation of water use as defined in Chapter 4 of the NWA. The online Water Use Licence Application and Authorisation System (e-WULAAS) is a tool to facilitate the authorisation and manage the authorisation of water use.