Water and Sanitation

South Africa is a water-scarce country facing a projected water deficit of 17% by 2030. This situation is caused by several factors including, insufficient water infrastructure maintenance and investment, frequent droughts driven by climatic variation and unequal access to safe and reliable water and sanitation. A 2016 Statistics South Africa report indicates that while 88% of the population has access to piped water, only 55% of households have water running directly into their homes. 

Access to sufficient, clean and safe water & sanitation is an essential right that is critical for good public health and ultimately socio-economic development.

Water and Sanitation Programmes

We offer a range of financial and non-financial solutions for the water and sanitation sector that address South Africa’s infrastructure water and sanitation challenges. These solutions are a response to the call to action in the National Water Safety Management Programme and are designed to address market failure and with the view of catalyzing private sector investment in the sector alongside DFI, government and concessional funding.

The solutions include the design and development of water-related programmes that address specific challenges facing the sector such as:

• Non-revenue Water Programme
• Water Reuse Programme and 
• Private Sector Participation Model

Service Offering

The DBSA’S water and sanitation service offering includes support in;

• planning
• project preparation
• financing through credit enhancements with partner Development Finance Institutions and Multilateral Development Banks that include:
  • 1st loss / subordinated facilities
  • tenor extension
  • guarantee products

Stakeholders

The South African water sector is characterized by various sub-sectors and role players. The National Water Act and the Water Services Act provides the legal and regulatory environment within which role players in the sector can act and operate. The Department of Water and Sanitation is the custodian of water and provides a monitoring and regulatory function. Water Boards and the TCTA plays a water service provider and regional bulk water provider functions, whereas local government has the responsibility of acting as the Water Services Authorities. The water sector is further comprised of various sub-sectors including resource development, bulk and raw water supply, water treatment, storage and distributions, and reticulation. 

Development Impact

The development impact that the DBSA aims for through our water and sanitation sector initiatives are:

• Provision of good quality water to poor rural and peri-urban communities
• Improved health of people (children) living in poor communities
• Potential for small business development (youth and women-owned)
• Job creation
• Economic empowerment
• Support innovative and locally developed point of use technology
• Sanitation solutions for climate change, water & food security, the health sector, female health and empowerment, for smart city infrastructure, and job creation 
• Opportunity for Government to deliver sanitation services faster & at a lower cost to approx. 2.8 million households
• Unlocking major infrastructure projects and investments in the water sector in Intermediate Cities and under-resourced municipalities
• Improved service delivery in constrained municipalities
• Capacity building, skills development and transfer to municipal officials
• Proper operation and maintenance of infrastructure created to maximize the life of the assets