The visioning process serves as a tool to engage stakeholders in water resource management to achieve a sense of cohesion and consensus-building, working towards a common process. The twelve-step visioning process follows three main phases: (i) preparation, (ii) generating a vision, and (iii) formulating objectives using the vision. Using selection guidelines, four visioning areas in the Lower Orange Water Management Area (LOWMA) were demarcated and refined after stakeholder input, and thereafter mapped. Relevant baseline material has been collected and workshops were conducted in March 2008 for each of the visioning areas as part of the second round of visioning. Stakeholders currently comprise of local and district municipalities, government and non-government organisations, regulatory authorities and representative water users. Using workshop inputs, the collective catchment context is described for each of the visioning areas detailing area-specific catchment uses and physical catchment characteristics such as precipitation trends. The visioning process is an iterative one, which, for the LOWMA started at the Lower Orange River Forum (LORF) in August 2007, and is now approaching it's third round of visioning, with a fourth generation vision to be formulated at the LORF in October 2008. With each round, data confidence increases as does stakeholder participation and data collection.