The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is preparing to open applications for the water-use licences for hydropower generation, with a stakeholder session outlining the process moving forward having taken place on April 11. The DWS had revised its hydropower policy to enable the use of its infrastructure and water resources to generate hydropower as an alternative energy to supplement the current available electricity in South Africa and stakeholders and independent power producers (IPPs) will, from April 17, be able to submit pre-applications for water use authorisations.