Regional Activities of the Water Initiative

Since late 2005, the Forum’s Water Initiative has focused on creating multistakeholder networks in South Africa and India. The work has been supported by Alcan and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The objective has been to catalyse ideas for public-private water infrastructure projects and shape them into well-developed, bankable project propositions, complete with champions and financing plans.

Regional water activities: Two multistakeholder networks have been developed, one in South Africa and one in India. The aim has been to demonstrate how these networks work in practice to develop a project pipeline that enhances industrial growth and improves social access to water. A subsequent objective has been to improve, replicate and scale up these networks and associated project pipelines to maximize their scope and impact.

South Africa projects

India projects

Catalysing Public-Private Collaboration on Sustainable Water Resource Development Projects

The underpinning hypothesis to the work

• That water projects which are designed to provide water for both economic growth (water for industry) and water for human needs (water for health) can better avoid the conflicts that often surround the management of water for competing uses, especially in water stressed, poorer areas.

• That it is difficult to bring together governments (national and local), industry (national and multinationals), civil society groups and NGOs (international and domestic) and the development community to conceptualise and develop such integrated water use projects, even though these projects would better benefit stakeholders. There exists a shortage of smart, “bankable” public-private water project propositions as a result.

• The shortage of bankable project propositions is not due primarily to a lack of financial resources, but more because the initial conceptualisation and brokerage of such projects does not fit easily with how current planning processes work in either the public, civil society or the private sector. Mindsets and institutions need to change and innovative processes need to be invested in, in order to deliver project outcomes, process lessons and raised awareness.

• That the formation of multi-stakeholder networks can facilitate more effective collaboration from all stakeholders to develop these bankable projects.

Who is involved?
Leading stakeholders closely involved in the Water Initiative include Alcan Inc., Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, USAID India, UNDP India, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Government of Rajasthan and the NEPAD Business Foundation.

The Forum’s Water Initiative also works closely and shares several activities with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development water project.

Activities in India
The Indian Business Alliance on Water (IBAW) was formalized at the Forum’s India Economic Summit in 2005, under the auspices of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). It includes a state government (Government of Rajasthan), development institutions (USAID, UNDP) and a range of companies, foundations and NGOs. The process has delivered a pipeline of 20 project propositions, which are being taken forward for design and implementation by the various parties involved.
Press release

IBAW has developed a pipeline of PPCP project proposals related to rural safe drinking water, rural wastewater recycling, and watershed management.

A full pipeline of the projects can be found at www.IBAW-India.com (Link), with two selected project summaries are included below:

Municipal Waste Water Treatment
The project proposes to re-use 1,000 cubic metres of municipal wastewater per day for industrial purposes in Beawar town. This will free up for domestic use the equivalent amount of potable water that industry had previously used for approximately 370,000 people. Partners involved are Shree Cement, the Government of Rajasthan and Municipal Corporation of Beawar City, Rajasthan.

Sustainable Water Enterprises
In the Bundelkhand region of Central India (comprising seven districts of Madhya Pradesh and six districts of Uttar Pradesh), about 90% of drinking water needs are currently being met from contaminated groundwater resources, leading to adverse and irreversible health problems, especially for the poorest. This project will develop water delivery enterprises – essentially micro enterprises that, through the use of easy-to-use micro technologies, will deliver clean drinking water to communities at an affordable price. It is envisaged that these enterprises will be owned and managed by either local entrepreneurs or self-help groups. Women in particular are willing to take this up as an income-generating activity. The enterprises will initially serve around 25,000 villagers, providing access to safe drinking water. The IBAW has brought together private sector expertise (Tata projects and Water Health India – a subsidiary of the technology provider Water Health International) and the Panchayati Raj Institutions in Bundelkhand to design and co-finance this project. There is a clear bottom-of-the-pyramid business case for the commercial partners involved and clear social development benefits for the government.

Activities in Africa
The NEPAD Business Foundation, with the support of the World Economic Forum Water Initiative, has helped to facilitate a multistakeholder water network that includes government departments such as the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, the National Treasury PPP unit and the South African Local Government Association; development and commercial finance institutions such as the Development Bank of Southern Africa, Trans Caledon Tunnel Authority and Standard Bank; civil society groups; and national and multinational companies, especially from the mining sector. Multilateral institutions such as the European Investment Bank, IFC, African Development Bank and NEPAD have also been involved in this process.

The network presented both project propositions during a private event at the World Economic Forum on Africa 2007 in Cape Town, where participants agreed that the network had achieved its initial aims and requested the continuation of the work on two fronts:
 
1) South Africa Projects Implementation – to keep the current project propositions progressing from conceptualization towards implementation, building in sustainability criteria

2)  Southern Africa Multistakeholder Network Development – to start sharing the process and lessons learned with other countries in the SADC region to improve, replicate and scale up the South Africa network and its associated project pipeline to cover more countries in Southern Africa

Summaries of both projects are provided below.
Hartbeespoort Dam Project
This project will treat and pipe poor quality, non-potable water from the Hartbeespoort Dam in Gauteng Province to be used as industrial grade water by mining, power generation and petrochemical industries in the north and potentially into Botswana. This will enable these industries to receive the water they need to maintain and grow their operations in the North West and Limpopo provinces, creating employment and supporting wider provincial economic growth ambitions. The flip side is that the volume of potable water currently being used by these industries will consequently be reduced by up to 50% and then made available to meet the growing needs of two district municipalities (Bajanale Platinum and Waterberg), providing clean water for approximately 595,000 people.

Burgersfort Project
This project will extend the existing Olifants Water User Association pipeline to deliver a sustainable water supply to Burgersfort – tagged as the town that will lead the economic development of Limpopo province due to its role as a mining hub. The pipeline will mean an increase in the supply of water to various existing and planned mining operations in the region. At the same time, the new pipeline will enable the go-ahead for new housing schemes for an estimated 150,000 people (of which 105,000 are below the poverty line) as each house will have full reticulated access to water. At the moment, these residents have basic access to water through boreholes and manual pumps.

“We need to start looking at these issues not only as South African issues, but Southern African issues. We started this in South Africa and we need to see it again in other countries in the region. I would be ashamed if this were only a South African initiative.”
Reginald Tekateka, Specialist Adviser, International Relations, Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF), South Africa