SOUTH AFRICA: Country Assessment for Unconventional Water Sources

This activity is part of larger programmatic support aimed at improving the enabling environment for mainstreaming unconventional water resources in the water mix to increase water security and resilience and obtain greater value-for-money from desalination and reuse operations in client countries.

This specific activity will focus on South Africa, and the aim is to promote the prioritization and design of investments that leverage unconventional water sources and that recover resources from wastewater and fecal sludge to make the water sector more financially and environmentally sustainable, while increasing water security and resilience. This activity intends to achieve this outcome by:

1. Reviewing the Policy, Institutional, and Regulatory Frameworks for Wastewater Reuse, Resource Recovery, and Desalination in South Africa, identifying key stakeholders, barriers and bottlenecks to scale up investments and attract private financing, and required changes to mainstream unconventional water sources and resource recovery.
2. Document existing successful cases in South Africa (or similar countries), showcasing different institutional arrangements, financing structures and business models for mainstreaming reuse, desalination, and resource recovery at sector scale. A key aspect will be to examine the role that the private sector played in financing these types of projects and to understand what types of private sector participation are most likely to succeed in different policy environments, and which type of financing structures can incentivize reuse and resource recovery and the sustainability of the services.
3. Identify 2 or 3 cities where there is potential for reuse and resource recovery and/or desalination and assess the potential market, including a demand-supply assessment for overall water requirements and for resources recovered from wastewater and fecal sludge, reviewing the relevant investment plans and, understanding the interest from counterparts/project owners and off-takers. The purpose of this analysis is to then develop, for potential projects, a Broad Term Sheet for financing or PPP implementation, including a broad risk allocation matrix and high-level financial modeling,
4. Knowledge dissemination, advocacy and capacity building which will include an engagement strategy with national and regional (including cities) partners, co-creation workshops, prioritization of topics to be developed into capacity-building workshops, etc.