The National Water Act recognises that water is a natural resource that belongs to all people and appoints the State as public trustee of South Africa’s water resources. The National Water Act regulates the way in which people obtain the right to use water and provides for just and equitable use of water resources. The main purpose of the Act is to protect, conserve and manage water resources in a sustainable and equitable way so as to take account of various factors, including:

• The basic human needs of present and future generations
• The need to protect water resources
• The need to share some water resources with other countries, and
• The need to promote social and economic development through the use of water.

National government, acting through the Minister and Department of Water Affairs and Sanitation, is responsible for achieving these basic principles. The Minister has the final responsibility of fulfilling certain obligations relating to the use, allocation and protection of water resources.

It is not possible to deal in detail with all of the sectoral laws. Therefore, all relevant sectoral legislation has been listed according to the three over-arching categories in the checklist at the end of this chapter. The checklist can be used to help you find out the laws that will apply in a particular situation. Once it has been established which laws apply, you can then follow the steps set out in the section on ways to resolve environmental disputes.