Water Innovation Platform Africa

completed

Enormous geographic disparities in basic water supply and sanitation leave many populations underserved. Many African water utilities are not creditworthy. So despite the need, private investors struggle to finance large projects that could make a significant impact. New technologies and practices to improve operations, service and efficiency, are constantly being brought to market. However, African utilities are chronically underfunded and often lack the internal capacity to assess these new offers. IFC, in collaboration with the African Water Association (AfWA), set up a water innovation platform for Africa (WIPA). Through this approach, experts consult with senior staff at the utilities to identify the issues which would benefit from a technical solution. They collaboratively sort through both proven and innovative technologies which could address the problem. The companies, utilities, and development partners then seek to pilot and transfer the technologies to the utilities. This approach deploys technologies to enhance and upgrade the existing asset base. This thus begins the process of addressing core issues such as non-revenue water, and can lead to subsequent investment for large greenfield investments. In 2016, IFC helped set up the first phase of the innovation platform, called WIPA 1, which worked with technical leads at African water utilities to understand their challenges, and then helped them to assess and select proven technologies that best addressed their needs. This second phase of the platform - WIPA 2 - will focus on expansion of the platform by identifying and selecting more technologies, that would be piloted by the utilities.