South Africa faces serious challenges in terms of ensuring water security and equitable distribution of water, sanitation and public housing, and this has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the pandemic also presents an opportunity to improve on these areas and ramp up infrastructure investment, speakers indicated during a Ministerial roundtable discussion on water and human settlements, held on June 23 as part of the inaugural Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium South Africa.
National Housing Finance Corporation chairperson Sizwe Tati said the country was facing a serious water crisis as a result of insufficient investment in new water infrastructure and maintenance of existing infrastructure.
The crisis is being exacerbated by drought.
Moreover, the country has to contend with the unequitable distribution of water, as well as sanitation services.
The water and sanitation sector also suffers from a lack of skills, as well as corruption and mismanagement, especially at a local level, he added.
Tati said the issues had become acute to unimaginable proportions in the face of the pandemic, while the sector is also not considered to be financially sustainable.
Therefore, speakers emphasised the need for public-private partnerships, stating that there are opportunities to build on previous successful projects, as well as to create sustainable, meaningful change, economic growth and jobs going forward.
Consulting Engineers South Africa (Cesa) CEO Christopher Campbell emphasised the need for water, sanitation and human settlements infrastructure projects to move away from just being about affordability and instead to focus on sustainability and quality.
This, he said, would be better in the long run, as it would reduce crippling high maintenance costs.
In terms of the capacity constraints in the public sector to execute projects, Campbell emphasised that the private sector could be involved to complement the State's capacity and to develop capacity that would reside within the State in the future.
He said capacity building had to be approached differently, with companies that have the know-how bringing on board other companies and bringing on board capacity for the future.
Water Research Commission CEO Dhesigan Naidoo stated that the pandemic, coupled with other issues facing the world and South Africa, had created a “perfect storm”.
However, he noted that these challenges should be flipped around, suggesting that industry create opportunities out of the crises, to enable the country to get to a point of water self-sufficiency, and further, to such a point that it can serve as a regional centre for the continent.
Moreover, the country wastes potable water at considerable levels. Naidoo said the pandemic had created a blank slate, giving the country the opportunity to change its pattern of consumption and production of water.