Water dept urges corporates to close R30bn/y infrastructure funding gap
The Department of Water and Sanitation has urged the South African financial sector to support its efforts to close the water services R30-billion-a-year infrastructure funding gap.
The department is in the process of drafting a new national water and sanitation master plan, which is expected to be completed in March 2018.
Speaking at the third Annual Water Stewardship summit in Johannesburg last week, the department’s deputy director-general, Trevor Balzer, asked big businesses to assist in funding sustainable development projects.
“We expect to incorporate the feedback we received today from the financial community and other stakeholders to create a plan that effectively addresses the country’s needs,” Balzer said.
The summit provided an opportunity for public and private financiers to become involved in the initial planning and project conceptualization stage of the new National Water and Sanitation Master Plan.
Leading water, infrastructure and financial sector stakeholders held in-depth talks on funding models to improve South Africa’s water security.
They focused on the future of municipal water infrastructure finance, improving municipalities’ capital budgets spending, and removing bottlenecks in municipal procurement.
By involving such financiers early in the process, the department hopes that the master plan can be designed in a way which is as beneficial to the country as it is attractive to investment.
Speakers said South Africa faces water services challenges on a number of fronts, including supply, ageing infrastructure, the need for new infrastructure, significant non-revenue water losses and revenue collection.
Catherine-Candice Koffman, head of infrastructure and telecommunications project finance at Nedbank CIB, said getting involved at this stage of the planning process would help to better conceptualise how corporates can leverage strategic, operational and sustainability goals.
“At Nedbank CIB we understand the intimate connectivity between leveraging natural resources and converting these into viable economic solutions to ensure the sustainability of our business and the socio-economic ecosystem in which we co-exist,” Koffman said.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation