In South Africa, the procedures involved in getting a water-use licence validated and verified are relatively complex. In this article, Johan Enslin and SJ Jansen van Rensburg, directors of Integrated Water Use License Application Management, explain the process, particularly in terms of legal water use before 1998, when the National Water Act (NWA) was passed into law.
In general, water use must be licensed unless it is an ‘existing lawful water use’ (ELU) or a Schedule 1 use, or is permissible under a general authorisation, or a responsible authority waives the need for a licence.
An ELU allows anyone who used water legally
