Farming Next to a River: What You May Do Without a Licence, and What Needs Permission

Without a licence, a farmer may take river water for the household, a garden that is not commercial, and stock grazing on the farm. Beyond that, using or working in a river needs an entitlement: existing lawful use dating from before 1998, a general authorisation with tight limits, or a water use licence. Ploughing next to a river needs its own permission under a separate Act.

Not sure whether your farm's water use or river works are covered? We check what your existing entitlement and the general authorisations allow, and prepare the licence application where they don't.

Water use licence applications

At a glance

What you want to do	Without a licence?	What applies
Take water for the house, a non-commercial garden and grazing stock	Yes	Schedule 1 of the National Water Act
Store roof run-off	Yes	Schedule 1
Irrigate crops for sale	Only within existing lawful use or the general authorisation limits	Sections 32 to 35; GN 538 of 2016
Store water off-channel	Up to your region’s Table 1 storage limit (2 000 m³ in the Limpopo, Olifants, Vaal and Orange regions); register above 10 000 m³ where the limit is higher	GN 538 of 2016
Build a dam or weir that stores water in the river	No	Water use licence (or existing lawful use)
Maintain a farm road or drift under 4 m wide on the same footprint	Yes, once registered	GN 4167 of 2023, Appendix D1
Build a new crossing, de-silt, or protect a bank	Only if the risk matrix rates it Low, then registered	GN 4167 of 2023
Plough within the 1:10-year flood area, within 10 m of it, or in a vlei	No: written permission	CARA regulation 7

Taking water without a licence: Schedule 1

Section 22 of the National Water Act allows water use without a licence in three ways: if it is permissible under Schedule 1, if it continues an existing lawful use, or if a general authorisation covers it. Schedule 1 lets a person:

“take water for use on land owned or occupied by that person, for - (i) reasonable domestic use; (ii) small gardening not for commercial purposes; and (iii) the watering of animals (excluding feedlots) which graze on that land within the grazing capacity of that land, from any water resource which is situated on or forms a boundary of that land, if the use is not excessive in relation to the capacity of the water resource and the needs of other users”

It also allows storing and using roof run-off, and taking water in an emergency for drinking or firefighting. It sets no volume; the tests are “reasonable” and “not excessive”. It does not cover irrigating crops for sale, feedlots, or storing river water in a dam.

The Act also ended the old riparian rights: section 4(4) says any entitlement under the Act “replaces any right to use water which that person might otherwise have been able to enjoy or enforce under any other law”.

Existing lawful use: what you used before 1998

An existing lawful water use is one that took place lawfully in the two years before the Act commenced (section 32). The Department’s 2006 verification guide gives this qualifying period as 1 October 1996 to 30 September 1998, except for surface water outside former government water control areas. Such a use may continue, but only to the extent it was lawfully exercised then. The guide warns: “If the current water use is greater than the use in the Qualifying Period then some of the current use may be unlawful.”

The Department can require any existing use to be verified (section 35). If it calls for verification, the use may not continue after the closing date if no application was made, or after an application is refused. The National Water Amendment Bill was introduced in Parliament in January 2026; watch for changes to water use entitlements.

The general authorisation for taking and storing water (GN 538)

GN 538 of 2 September 2016 allows small amounts of water to be taken and stored without a licence:

• River water: an annual volume and abstraction rate set per drainage region, from 2 000 m³ a year at 1 litre per second up to 80 000 m³ a year at 16 litres per second, some only in set months. In many inland regions, including much of the Vaal, Orange and Limpopo systems, the figure is 2 000 m³ a year. Check your farm’s drainage region in Table 1 of the notice.
• Not near wetlands: no water may be taken under the authorisation “within a 500 metre radius from the boundary (delineated edge) of a wetland, pan or estuary”.
• Groundwater: a rate per hectare of property, set per region, up to 40 000 m³ a year per property, and not within 100 m of the riparian edge of a watercourse.
• Storage: off-channel only, up to the Table 1 volume for the catchment; new storage structures need outlet works able to release the full volume within 30 days.
• Registration: required above 50 m³ a day of surface water on average, 10 m³ a day of groundwater, or 10 000 m³ of storage on a property.
• Measuring: above 5 litres per second from a river (2 litres per second from groundwater), measure and record monthly and keep the records for five years.

The authorisation does not add to existing lawful use or Schedule 1; you may use whichever entitlement is largest, not the sum.

Working in the river: GN 4167

Any work that impedes or diverts flow, or alters the bed or banks, is a section 21(c) or (i) water use. The general authorisation for these uses, GN 4167 of 2023, applies within the regulated area of a watercourse (the 1:100-year floodline or riparian edge, otherwise 100 m from the watercourse, and 500 m around a wetland). Our post on the lines that control building near a river explains the regulated area.

Some activities need no risk assessment, only registration and a reduced set of the notice’s conditions. Those relevant to farms are:

• “Emergency river crossings for vehicles to gain access to livestock, crops or residences”;
• “Maintenance to private roads and river crossings provided that footprint remains the same and the road is less than 4 m wide”;
• “Erection of fences provided that the fence will not in any way impede or divert flow”;
• small hydropower schemes of 10 to 300 kW that do not affect the flow regime or water quality.

New crossings, de-silting and bank protection are not on that list. They need the DWS risk matrix, completed by a SACNASP-registered professional: Low risk can be registered under the authorisation; Medium or High needs a licence. The work may start only once the Department has issued a registration letter.

For work registered through the risk matrix, the full conditions apply, including:

• no camps, vehicles or materials inside the 1:100-year floodline or riparian habitat;
• excavated bed material returned to the bed;
• dated photographs before, during and after the work;
• disturbed areas cleared of alien plants and re-vegetated with indigenous species.

Dams and weirs

• In the river: GN 4167 does not apply “where storage of water results” from the work, and GN 538 covers off-channel storage only. A dam or weir that holds water in a river therefore needs a water use licence, unless it is an existing lawful use.
• Off-channel: covered by GN 538 within its limits, and registered above 10 000 m³.
• Dam safety: a dam that can hold more than 50 000 m³ and has a wall higher than 5 m is a “dam with a safety risk” and must be registered with the Dam Safety Office within 120 days of being able to impound water. Our guide to every law that applies to a site near a river covers the dam safety rules.
• Environmental authorisation: a dam or weir over 100 m² in a watercourse or within 32 m of one (Listing Notice 1, activity 12), off-stream storage of 50 000 m³ or more (activity 13), or a dam wall of 5 m or higher (Listing Notice 2, activity 16) can each trigger environmental authorisation under the NEMA EIA regulations. Activity 12 does not apply inside urban areas, within existing road reserves, or to temporary structures removed within 6 weeks without clearing indigenous vegetation.

Ploughing, clearing and de-silting near rivers

CARA regulation 7. Without written permission from the executive officer under the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act, no land user may drain or cultivate a vlei, marsh or water sponge, or “cultivate any land on his farm unit within the flood area of a water course or within 10 metres horizontally outside the flood area”. The flood area is the land flooded by the 1:10-year flood. Ask the provincial agriculture department’s local office how to apply, and apply well before you plan to plough. Land already cultivated when the regulations started in 1984, and protected against erosion, is exempt.

Regulation 7 also places a duty on the farmer: every land user must remove vegetation in a watercourse on the farm “to such an extent that it will not constitute an obstruction during a flood that could cause excessive soil loss”. And regulation 8 bars diverting run-off from one watercourse to another without written permission.

Environmental authorisation. The NEMA EIA regulations have no general exemption for agriculture. Clearing 1 ha or more of indigenous vegetation (Listing Notice 1, activity 27), or 300 m² in listed sensitive areas (Listing Notice 3, activity 12), or moving more than 10 m³ of material into or out of a watercourse (activity 19), can each need environmental authorisation. Routine work done under an approved maintenance management plan is excluded from both.

Where to start

1. Establish what you already have: existing lawful use, any registrations, and any licence conditions.
2. Check the general authorisations: your drainage region’s limits in GN 538, and whether planned river work is on the GN 4167 list or needs a risk matrix.
3. Map the regulated area: the 1:100-year floodline and riparian edge decide where GN 4167 applies.
4. Apply early where you need a licence: in-river dams and weirs, larger abstraction, and Medium or High risk work.

See our water use licence applications and floodline determination services, or send us the farm details.

This post explains the documents listed below. Requirements change and are applied case by case, so confirm them with the relevant authority before relying on them.