A recent paper by Siebrits et al. (2014) identified priority water research areas in SA. Among the most important research questions that emerged from this work were ‘allocative efficiency’ and ‘sustainable development’. In light of the issues regarding the implementation of the NWA and biofuel development in SA, plus the priority research areas identified by Siebrits et al., we present here a first water footprint assessment (WFA) for South Africa. This paper seeks to demonstrate how WFA can be used to support the addressing of environmental sustainability and economic efficiency concerns of water allocation and use in the South African context, thereby informing water management and policy making to identify appropriate strategies and to set sustainability targets.