The business of compulsory licencing

Abstract

IWRM The National Water Act (NWA), Act 36 of 1998, has been widely hailed as one of the most progressive water resource acts in the world. It recognises that the environment should be allowed its rightful share, it placed into law South Africa’s obligations to countries it shares its rivers with and it did away with the concept of ‘riparian water law’, Writes Peter van Niekerk. Previous water legislation did not take into regard hydrological realities which nowadays are better understood, e.g. the connections between groundwater and surface water. Riparian rights were replaced by water licences to be allocated by a responsible authority, such as the Department of Water Affairs & Forestry (DWAF) or a catchment management agency. As a transitional measure the concept of ‘existing lawful use entitlement’ was introduced, with the aim of replacing all these entitlements with licences in due course.

Authors

Categories