Recreational water use in South Africa is a small fraction of the overall water demands. Therefore, there is tremendous potential for economic growth related to water-based recreation throughout the country. To fully understand the basis for this potential, various disciplines were examined to provide a full contextual analysis of the water-based industries. These areas included water allocation systems, community-based policy models, and economic/environmental considerations. All were used to develop an analysis for the establishment and sustainability of water-based recreation. Moreover, the analysis carefully included the need for recreational water use to provide the additional benefit of community economic empowerment for rural residents. A case study was used at Pongolapoort Dam, in the northeastern part of the country, to provide a baseline of the processes currently used.

An interdisciplinary policy model was developed to streamline and optimize water use for recreational purposes in South Africa and similar areas in the world. The model incorporates the needs of all stakeholders and the results indicate that current process needs to be streamlined and deemed more effective by local participants. The model reassesses expectations of economic empowerment for local communities at Pongolapoort and suggests that environmental and social considerations are important factors to achieve sustainability of the water resource on which the recreational industry is based.