Waterfront #2 2015: Always something new out of Africa

ANALYSIS
in a step-wise manner with support from a
range of local and international partners proving
useful. The engagement of the private sector in the
planning, development, operation and maintenance
of water infrastructure (at various levels of scale)
will become increasingly important as the needed
capacity and resources in the public sector is typically
not sufficient to respond adequately. Several
innovative examples of this exist on the continent,
such as mining companies treating wastewater for
sale to municipalities, hydro-power dam operators
supporting catchment conservation efforts; and
performance-based contracts for private water supply
operators to increase network coverage and reduce
leakage. A great challenge exists in translating
the project opportunities identified by water
planners into infrastructure investment opportunities
which can attract investors locally and internationally.
The success in being able to do this lies
with establishing a viable business case which has
realistic recovery of funding from the population
(and industries) being served, while the necessary
social-safeguards are put in place to ensure the poor
and marginalised are not excluded from a guaranteed
life-line supply.
In the long run, effective water governance institutional
frameworks need to be combined with
innovative technological, finance and management
practices.
This is already taking place in the telecoms and
the finance sectors in Africa, where solutions such
as performing banking transactions over mobile
phones, have already transformed the lives of millions
on the continent. Discussing innovation in
Africa, the Economist newspaper concludes by stating
that the problems faced by Africa are different
to the ones faced in Europe and America; hence the
solutions are likely to come out of Africa. The coming
decade is likely to see such innovations being
developed specifically in response to the water and
development challenges of the continent.
Anton Earle is the Director of SIWI’s Africa
Regional Centre in Pretoria, South Africa.
12 WATERFRONT # 2 | may 2015