**Abstract**

This paper examines the incentives for managing water demands from a catchment or basin perspective by focusing on defined property rights dimensions. Using property rights theory, the paper has investigated the existence of relationships between attributes of property rights and intentions of water users to conserve water. A case study was used to test whether property rights can be used as incentives in the management of water demands. The results from the analyses that were conducted using IBM SPSS indicated that property rights would be very significant in curtailing water demands in a catchment by acting as incentives in water resource utilisation, specifically by motivating water user users to conserve water. This is an important finding because it would thus help water resource managers to use a properly defined property rights system (better duration and secure tenure) to enable water users curtail the ever-increasing water demands in the river basins.

**Keywords:** property rights, water demand management, water licences, water conservation, water scarcity
