Formal encroachments result from two activities: Where a developer develops property contrary to Rand Water’s servitude conditions. In the normal course of events, Developers should, before embarking on a development project, check the existence of services on land. In the event a service is detected, the developer should in addition to submitting the development plans to municipality for approval, submit such plans to RW for approval. The purpose of submitting the plans to RW is for RW to determine that the township development is not encroaching on RW services. In some instances, the Developers does not submit such plans to RW for approval. In other instances, the Developers do submit the development plans to RW but they construct contrary to the plans and thereby encroach on RW services.

Where the owner of the land erects encroaching structure on Rand Water servitude These encroachments normally take the form of fences or other small structures on the servitude. In both types of formal encroachments, Rand Water would engage the encroacher by invoking the provisions of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act for the encroacher to demolish the encroachment. However, the legal battle is encountered with encroachments resulting from Developers. In this case, the parties end up in court for the demolition of houses. This is not a very pleasant experience but due to the dangers that the encroachers are exposed to, RW has no alternative but to demolish the houses.