Water and Sanitation holds Water Infrastructure Investment Summit, 5 Dec

New Date for Water Infrastructure Investment Summit: 05 December 2017

The Water Infrastructure Investment Summit which was planned for the 30 November 2017 has now been moved to Thursday, 05 December 2017 at the same venue, the Sandton Convention Centre. The postponement of this summit was influenced by the schedules and availability of high profile speakers who have confirmed their participation for the 1st week of December.

The summit will be jointly hosted by the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) and the Water Research Commission (WRC) and will feature investors, funders, project developers, policymakers, regulators and local government partners to engage in a programme of action that aims to shift the water and sanitation sector investment landscape to a space that is open and enabling for investment and inclusive growth opportunities.

The Summit comes at a time when the sector role players are looking seriously at the issue of the investment climate for water and sanitation in the light of persistent drought and flood challenges, ongoing service delivery needs and the ageing water infrastructure. Most importantly, the Summit is driven by policy imperatives emerging from the development of the next National Water Resources and Sanitation Strategy and the associated development of the National Water Master Plan. Investment in water infrastructure is a key priority laid out in the government’s National Development Plan and the follow up National Infrastructure Plan.

In response to these needs and challenges, the Summit intends to drive a coordinated, strategy focused approach by showcasing bankable water and sanitation projects and looking at mechanisms and structures to close the funding gap. The summit programme will focus on key investment opportunities, constraints and solutions in the areas of bulk water infrastructure, municipal water infrastructure, and emerging innovations and solutions. The format of the Summit is combination of panel discussions and a series of action oriented workshops with key topics including:

  1. Dealing with water availability, aging infrastructure, ensuring water quality, and energy use reduction challenges through development of cutting edge solutions and innovation;
  2. Facilitating economic growth through infrastructure investment to enable the private sector to expand capacity, create more jobs and produce more goods and services;
  3. Identifying constraints and finding solutions allowing wider participation and investment in the sector;
  4. Funding infrastructure projects, enabling research, developing and implementing improvements of the investable water and sanitation infrastructure projects;
  5. Collaboration by government and the private sector for the development of innovative water utilities of the future through a supportive and regulative regime;
  6. Accelerating access to clean water and sanitation services to facilitate social and economic development by the local government.

To ensure that this all-important gathering is not just a talk shop, the Summit will be followed on by a year-long Investment Stewardship initiative – a series of focused, specific engagements, led by a range of different water sector organizations. The overall intention of the stewardship process is to run a structured collaboration process that will undertake appropriate scanning of infrastructure opportunities, and develop projects for water sector investment whilst building partnerships to address sustainable and developmental investment in the sector.

Enquiries:
Khosi Jonas:
Cell: 083 314 0436
E-mail: khosi@wrc.org.za

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