problems emerged in situations where irrigation expansion followed individual plans and decisions as individual entrepreneurs failed to factor in the consequences of their decisions on the local community the objective was to define an institutional framework or policy tool that could provide for the revision of water entitlements revisit the first come first served practice and grant local farming communities the capacity to selfmanage the policy positions were developed arising from the consultative process and under the strong political guidance of the minister of water affairs to guide the reform the department of water affairs in consultation with stakeholders on a national and regional basis developed a set of underlying principles