The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) has structures present at Headquarters, Provinces and District level to provide the required services in water resources management and development.

The Department of Water Affairs is vested with the sole responsibility of developing and managing water resources.  The process of implementing the activities pertaining to water development (particularly rural water development) includes initial planning, budgeting and mobilisation of resources, reconnaissance surveys, actual construction or making the water accessible through a well for instance, testing, commissioning and finally handing over of facilities to the user community.  In this vein, the function or responsibility of the DWA with regard to water resources development entails surveying for the water resource and tapping it to make it accessible for users.

Water resource management mainly looks at meeting the demand for water.  It takes the demand for water as given as legitimate and looks at the most efficient way of meeting that demand and continually increasing the benefits from a finite resource.  The DWA is responsible for overseeing and controlling activities of water resource development and management in order to prevent the indiscriminate tapping of water resources.

The Department is responsible for the provision of sufficient and reliable data on water resources availability and demand in the country to allow for effective planning, utilisation and management of the resource.  The Department also undertakes the development and management of water conservation.

At Ministry Headquarters, DWA comprise the following sections.

 a) Ground Water Resources Section;
 b) Surface Water Resources Section; and
 c) Water Resources Management Section.