2030 Water Resources Group Africa

completed

2030 WRG is a public-private-civil society partnership, established in 2008. The objective of 2030 WRG is to accelerate water reforms and generate action to ensure water does not become a barrier to economic growth, while ensuring long-term environmental and social sustainability. In Africa, the current focus countries for 2030 WRG are South Africa (since late 2011), Tanzania (since late 2013), and Kenya (since mid 2014). Country selection has been demand-driven (i.e. via a high level invitation from the government). The scale of water security issues, and presence of 2030 WRG partners in-country, have also influenced the geographic focus. SOUTH AFRICA The 2030 WRG engagement in South Africa began in late 2011. With the analysis phase completed, Multi-Stakeholder Platform established (Strategic Water Partners Network), and priority projects identified, the priority over the next two years will be to ensure that this foundation translates into meaningful impacts. The focus for project development will be in three areas: 1. Water efficiency and leakage reduction. Under this group the primary focus will remain municipal water supply systems. To reduce these losses, 2030 WRG will support the roll out of the No Drop reform program and the development of specific, financially viable water loss reduction projects, including via the testing of the Performance Based Contract toolkit. 2. Effluent and wastewater management. The focus under this working group is mine water management. The first objective will be to establish the institutional and economic viability of mine wastewater reuse PPP projects at catchment and/or mine levels. The Witbank catchment has been selected as a test case. 3. Agricultural and supply chain water. Expected focus topics include (i) the upgrading of the national Water Administration System (bulk irrigation scheduling system), and (ii) use of PPPs for the rehabilitation of large scale irrigation systems. A further objective (which applies to all countries) is to increase high level awareness of water security risks, opportunities, and the benefits of public-private collaboration. Results in this area will be tracked via tailored surveys (see Evaluation Plan section) and other standard indicators, e.g. media appearances, publications, etc (refer planned communications plan, as above). TANZANIA 2030 WRG has been active in Tanzania since late 2013. With 2,300 cubic meters of water per capita, Tanzania has a relative abundance of water resources at an aggregate level. However, with extremely low level of water storage capacity, and high annual and seasonal rainfall variability, the country faces major constraints in securing sufficient water, in particular for agricultural development. Indicative planned initiatives include: - Expanding access to efficient irrigation systems for emerging/smallholder farmers through aggregated access to finance and awareness raising - Development of new public-private water stewardship initiatives in high water competition watersheds. KENYA Kenya is home to some of the great water towers of East Africa (Mt Kenya, the Aberdares), yet 90 percent of the country is either arid or semi-arid. At an aggregate level, annual renewable freshwater supply is only 650 m3 per capita, well below the threshold for chronic water scarcity. Early 2030 WRG analysis suggests that the scale of planned development, especially irrigation, could lead to a 29% water gap in 2030 unless substantial supply- and demand-side investments are made. The immediate priorities for Kenya are to: (i) generate further interest and awareness on the water agenda and the concept of a Kenya 2030 WRG partnership, (ii) fully establish the multi-stakeholder platform; and (iii) agree on working group priorities and specific projects/initiatives to develop under the partnership.