A bill tabled this month would ban private trading in water rights, let government take back unused allocations and put strict limits on mining and forestry in the country’s most important catchments. It could reshape who controls South Africa’s water.
Most of the water debate in South Africa focuses on what comes out of the tap. But behind every tap, every irrigation scheme and every mine is a quieter question: who has the legal right to take water from rivers, dams and aquifers in the first place, and on what terms. On 21 January 2026, a bill that would significantly change the answer to that question was tabled in the National Assembly. The National Water Amendment Bill, approved by Cabinet in August 2025, is the third set of amendments to the National Water Act of 1998, the law that governs how water resources are allocated, used and protected.
It is a separate bill from the Water Services Amendment Bill tabled in October 2025, which deals with how municipalities deliver water and sanitation. Where that bill is about pipes and service providers, this one is about the resource itself.
Why the Act is being amended
The National Water Act was hailed internationally when it was passed. It declared water a national resource held in trust by the state, replaced the old system of private riparian rights, and committed the country to redressing the racially skewed allocation of water inherited from apartheid. In practice, implementation has been slow. Licence applications have taken years to process, the protection of water resources has lagged behind development, and the share of water allocated to historically disadvantaged users has grown only slowly.
According to the department, the amendments aim to strengthen regulation of how water is managed, protected, used, developed and conserved, to promote equity and redress past imbalances, and to clear up areas where the law has been interpreted in different ways.
An end to private water trading
The most controversial change concerns the trading of water rights. Under the current Act, water users can temporarily transfer their entitlements, for example allowing irrigation water to be used for another purpose or on a nearby property, or surrender an entitlement to support someone else’s licence application. In 2023, the Constitutional Court ruled in the Lotter case that private parties could agree on payment for such surrenders, because the law did not clearly prohibit it. In practice, this allowed a market in water rights to develop, particularly in farming areas.
The bill would close that door. Trading or transferring water use entitlements between private parties would be prohibited. Water that is surrendered would revert to the state, through the minister, for reallocation in the public interest. Transfers would be limited to the holder’s own land, and temporary transfers capped at 24 months. Supporters argue that this prevents water, a public resource, from being sold for private profit and ensures it can be reallocated to those who were historically excluded. Critics, including legal advisers to agricultural and industrial users, warn that it will reduce the flexibility that has allowed water to move to its most productive use, and make long-term investments that depend on secure water access riskier.
Use it or lose it
The bill would also codify the principle that water allocations which are not used can be taken back. Where a licence holder has not used their authorised water for a set period, the department would be able to curtail or revoke the allocation and reallocate it. The minister would also gain clearer powers to reallocate water between sectors, provinces or catchments in the public interest, after consultation.
The bill would end the process for declaring existing lawful water uses, a category that has allowed users who were taking water before the 1998 Act came into force to continue doing so without a new licence. Over time, those uses would be replaced by licences issued under the current system.
Protecting water source areas
One of the most significant environmental changes concerns strategic water source areas, the relatively small parts of the country, often mountainous catchments, that produce a large share of its surface water. The minister would publish scientifically identified water source areas and regulate activities in and around them. Opencast and underground mining that may cause acid mine drainage, as well as forestry plantations, could be restricted or prohibited in these areas, and setbacks would apply to agricultural activities in threatened areas.
For mining in particular, this is a major shift, because minerals are where they are and cannot be moved. Protecting the catchments that feed rivers like the Vaal, the Olifants and the Komati could, however, prove far cheaper than trying to clean up water once it has been polluted.
Redress and accountability
The bill puts redress at the centre of allocation. Responsible authorities would have to prioritise redressing past racial and gender discrimination and set aside volumes of water for that purpose in each water management area. Water user associations, the bodies that manage shared irrigation and other schemes, would have to include strategies for racial and gender representation in their constitutions, approved by the minister.
It also strengthens accountability for pollution and unlawful use. Directors of companies and municipal managers could be held personally liable for offences in certain circumstances, courts could order the recovery of rehabilitation costs and financial benefits gained from offences, and the most serious offences would carry fines of up to R10 million and prison terms of up to ten years. Licensing processes would be sped up by shortening the periods for classifying water resources and determining the ecological Reserve, the water that must remain in rivers to keep them healthy.
What happens next
The bill now goes to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, which is expected to call for public comment and hold hearings. Agricultural organisations, mining houses, municipalities, environmental groups and community organisations are all likely to have strong views, and the trading ban and redress provisions are expected to draw the most attention.
For readers of the MAP Forum, the bill matters because water allocation shapes everything downstream. Who holds water rights determines which farms are irrigated, which industries grow and how much water remains in rivers for ecosystems and communities. The coming months of debate will decide whether South Africa’s next chapter of water law delivers the fairness and protection the 1998 Act promised, and whether it can do so without undermining the investment the economy needs.
References
Acts Online: National Water Amendment Bill [B1-2026] tabled in National Assembly (21 January 2026): https://acts.co.za/news/blog/2026/01/national-water-amendment-bill-tabled
Parliament of South Africa: National Water Amendment Bill: https://www.parliament.gov.za/bill/2326497
Webber Wentzel: Cabinet approves National Water Amendment Bill, strengthening water security: https://webberwentzel.com/News/Pages/cabinet-approves-national-water-amendment-bill-strengthening-water-security.aspx
Engineering News: Cabinet green-lights water Bills (8 August 2025): https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/print-version/cabinet-green-lights-water-bills-2025-08-08
Acts Online: Water Services Amendment Bill tabled in Parliament (October 2025): https://acts.co.za/news/blog/2025/10/water-services-amendment-bill-2025
Department of Water and Sanitation: National Water Act, 1998: https://www.dws.gov.za/Documents/Legislature/nw_act/NWA.pdf