On 24 April 2026, the Minister of Water and Sanitation published Government Notice 7408, requiring all unregistered water users to register within 90 days of publication, placing the deadline at approximately 23 July 2026. The notice carries criminal sanctions for non-compliance and affects a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, forestry, mining, industrial manufacturing and commercial operations reliant on water abstraction or stream flow reduction activities. It also arrives against the backdrop of the National Water Amendment Bill, 2026 (the Amendment Bill), which proposes far-reaching structural reforms, including the prohibition of private water trading, the introduction of a “use it or lose it” principle and expanded ministerial reallocation powers.

What's happening

For many water users, particularly those who bought properties, restructured their businesses, or started industrial operations without updating their registrations, this notice may have arrived without warning. The consequences of doing nothing are severe: criminal liability, including imprisonment of up to five years, and exposure to a regulatory crackdown that is already well underway. The notice cannot be read in isolation. It forms part of a broader reform agenda that could fundamentally change how water is used, allocated and traded in South Africa.

What the notice requires

The notice applies specifically to two categories of water use under section 21 of the National Water Act 1998 (the NWA): the taking of water from a water resource (section 21(a)) and engaging in stream flow reduction activities, i.e., large-scale commercial forestry operations (section 21(d)). Water storage, impeding or diverting watercourse flow, irrigation with wastewater and waste disposal-related uses fall outside its scope. Compliance with the notice will therefore not resolve all regulatory gaps that a water user may have.

It is worth noting that this call for registration comes remarkably late. The Water Use Registration Regulations were published back in November 1999 and the bulk of registration drives took place in the years that followed. The 2026 notice has therefore been issued more than two decades after water users were first required to register. Its broad reach, capturing users who may have operated for years without registration, is a direct consequence of that prolonged enforcement gap.

It is equally important that water users understand what registration does and does not achieve. Registration is not a clean bill of health. It does not confirm that a water use is lawful or that the volume claimed is correct.

Under the Water Use Registration Regulations, responsibility for the accuracy of submitted information rests with the water user. Registration remains subject to verification by the responsible authority under section 35 of the NWA. During verification, the authority may determine that a water use is unlawful, or lawful only to a lesser extent than claimed, and that determination limits what the user may continue to do.

A user who fails to apply for verification when required, or whose application is refused, may lose the right to continue that water use entirely.

In short, registration opens the door to scrutiny. Water users who have been operating without registration for extended periods should carefully assess the defensibility of their historical use before submitting applications, because the information disclosed may itself trigger a process with consequences extending beyond the registration exercise.

The categories of unregistered water users captured by the notice are deliberately broad and many businesses may be affected without realising it. They include:

• property purchasers who never notified the responsible authority of a change in ownership;
• land restitution beneficiaries whose ownership changes were never reported;
• lessees occupying property where the owner did not register;
• users who changed their registered names or contact details without informing the responsible authority;
• commercial borehole users who never registered; and
• users who registered agricultural water use but never separately registered resulting industrial water use.

Registration is free if forms are submitted within the 90-day window. Applications submitted after the deadline may attract a fee of ZAR 300 per property.

From irrigation boards to water user associations

The notice contains an important exemption that warrants scrutiny. Water users falling within the area of operation of a water user association (WUA) are exempt from registration, except where such users operate commercial boreholes, which must still be registered with the responsible authority.

The NWA established WUAs under Chapter 8 as permanent statutory vehicles for co-operative local water management and contemplated that irrigation boards would convert to WUAs within a transitional period. That transition remains incomplete. Many irrigation boards continue to operate in practice without having formally converted and it is those users who should pay close attention to the limits of the exemption.

The exemption refers specifically to WUAs and the legal protection available to users relying on unconverted irrigation boards is less settled than may initially appear.

Additionally, where a board has not formally approved the conversion of an agricultural water allocation for industrial purposes, there is a credible argument that the industrial abstraction falls outside the scope of any exemption. Commercial boreholes remain registrable irrespective of WUA or irrigation board membership.

The incomplete transition also raises a longer-term strategic concern. Water users operating in stressed catchments where irrigation boards remain unconverted may face reallocation pressures as the regulatory environment tightens.

The prudent approach is to clarify the applicable institutional position, interrogate the basis for any exemption and avoid assuming that an exemption automatically applies.

The proposed regime: according to the Director-General

The registration notice forms part of a broader reform agenda driven by concerns that the current framework has failed to achieve equitable water access.

In engagements with Parliament’s Portfolio Committee, the Director-General of Water and Sanitation, Dr Sean Phillips, identified two structural problems: existing lawful water use entitlements do not expire unless replaced through compulsory licensing, leaving unused allocations unavailable for redistribution; and the current licensing framework does not allow equity considerations to outweigh other statutory factors.

According to the Department, this has resulted in water use entitlements being treated as tradeable commercial assets, retained for market value rather than productive use.

The proposed amendments are intended to address these concerns by strengthening the state’s ability to regulate, reallocate and transform water use.

These concerns have translated into a clear institutional preference to move away from existing lawful water uses as the primary basis for water entitlement and towards licensed use.

Existing lawful water uses, which derive their authority from pre-NWA entitlements preserved under section 32 of the NWA, do not expire, are not subject to fixed licence periods and are difficult to attach conditions to. From the Department's perspective, this makes them hard to monitor, enforce and reallocate.

Licensed use, by contrast, is time-limited, subject to mandatory review periods of no more than five years and may be amended, suspended or withdrawn under the NWA licensing framework.

The Amendment Bill's "use it or lose it" principle and expanded reallocation powers are most naturally applied to licences and the Department's push for registration, which opens the door to verification under section 35 and ultimately to compulsory licensing under section 43, should be understood, at least in part, as a mechanism for converting existing lawful water uses into a form of entitlement that the state can regulate, condition and reallocate more readily.

The Amendment Bill's principal interventions include:

• “Use it or lose it” principle: water use licences not utilised for a prescribed period may be revoked, with the water returned to the Department for reallocation. The Bill also allows users voluntarily to surrender unused entitlements.
• Ban on private water trading: the Bill seeks to prohibit private trading of water use entitlements on the basis that water is a public resource that should not be allocated through private market transactions.
• Expanded ministerial powers to reallocate water: the Bill introduces a new power permitting the Minister to reallocate water between sectors, provinces and catchments following consultation and consideration of the factors in section 27(1) of the NWA.
• Stronger transformation requirements: the Bill establishes criteria intended to address historical racial and gender inequities in water access and allocation.
• “Fit and proper person” requirement: authorities may refuse to consider licence applications from persons who have committed serious breaches of water legislation, strengthening accountability for non-compliance.

Water trading: what the courts confirmed and where the law is headed

The most contested legal question in South African water law in recent years has been whether water use entitlements can be transferred to third parties and whether compensation may be charged for doing so.

The Constitutional Court addressed this question in Minister of Water and Sanitation and Others v Lötter N.O. and Others[2023] ZACC 09.

For many years, the Department permitted transfers and trading of water use entitlements under section 25 of the NWA before reversing its position in January 2018 through a circular stating that section 25 did not permit such trading.

The resulting litigation reached the Constitutional Court, which held that section 25 permits temporary transfers of water use entitlements to third parties, including transfers involving compensation.

While the court acknowledged the state's legitimate concern regarding historical inequities, it confirmed that the NWA, in its current form, does not prohibit private water trading.

The Amendment Bill's proposed prohibition on private water trading is a direct legislative response to that judgment.

Our recommendation

The 90-day window closes on approximately 23 July 2026. Miss it and criminal exposure follows.

However, the registration notice is also something more: an early signal of a substantially more intensive regulatory environment that is already emerging. As the Amendment Bill progresses and enforcement capacity increases, the risks associated with unregistered, inaccurately registered or strategically misaligned water use are likely to increase.

Water users should use the 90-day period to:

• confirm that existing registrations accurately reflect the current legal entity, ownership structure and contact details;
• assess whether industrial water use linked to historical agricultural allocations has been properly authorised and registered;
• identify and register commercial boreholes, irrespective of WUA or irrigation board membership;
• evaluate the legal sustainability of reliance on any exemptions; and
• ensure that registration submissions align with broader integrated water use licensing strategies.

The deadline is real. The criminal sanctions are real. And the regulatory direction of travel is increasingly clear. Water users who act now will be better positioned, legally and strategically, than those who wait.

Written by Garyn Rapson, Partner & Gwen Mathebula, Associate from Webber Wentzel