Stream Flow Reduction Allocations, is a Subdirectorate of the Directorate: Water Utilisation within the Department of Water and Sanitation & of South Africa.  The main task of this section is to assess and manage the impacts of Stream Flow Reduction Activities (SFRAs) on the water resources in the country.

A new licensing system, called the Stream Flow Reduction Allocations (SFRA) Water Licensing System is now in place.   It has replaced the Afforestation Permit System (APS) which had been under use since 1972. This system is controlled and regulated by this Subdirectorate.

The SFRA Water Use Licensing Systems captures the history or record (in digital format) on where the plantations are, what kind of species the plantation has, the size of the planted area, when was the license(s) issued, the personal details of the applicant and other attributes which are included in the application.

The afforestation licenses are captured from the topographic maps provided as attachments to the applications and stored on a Geographic Information System (GIS). These licenses are captured using the cadastral farm boundaries as a background. This process started in 1999 with the aim of covering the mostly afforested provinces, i.e. KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga, Western Cape and Northern Province. To date, three provinces (KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape) have been covered and is envisaged that all afforested provinces (Regions) will be covered by the end of February 2002.