400 million litres of water lost each day due to leaks in Johannesburg water infrastructure.
This is a startling statistic highlighted in a recent Daily Maverick article which looks at the financial and social impact of poor water infrastructure on the citizens of Johannesburg. Up to 46% of piped water is lost each year to leaks and poor infrastructure and this translates into rising costs associated with both scarcity and maintenance costs.
According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), globally 443 million school days are lost each year due to illness caused by a lack of access to water or access to a poor water source.
It is clear that water infrastructure is an area which needs serious attention and we believe that businesses can invest in win-win solutions for their communities.
Utilising Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) to meet Sustainable Development Goals linked to water
In South Africa, we are seeing an increasing amount of focus around alignment of ESD funding with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This goes beyond SDG6 which carries the headline of “Clean Water and Sanitation”.
We believe that the deployment of ESD funding for water storage, capture and recycling solutions will potentially allow businesses to align with the following SDGs:
SDG2 – Zero Hunger
This includes alignment with target 2.4 which seeks to:
“By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.”
SDG3 – Good Health and Well-being
As recently experienced in South Africa, poor water systems have allowed for the spread of diseases including cholera, Hepatitis and dysentery. Investments in water infrastructure will support in preventing the spread of waterborne diseases.
These investments will also align with target 3.9.2 which seeks to substantially reduce the number of deaths and illnesses related to:
“Mortality rate attributed to unsafe water, unsafe sanitation and lack of hygiene (exposure to unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) services)”
Further to this, you would be able to positively impact the education sector in South Africa by enhancing water and sanitation systems around schools.
Lessons from solar: Water ESD solutions can make a rapid difference
One of the key learnings from the load-shedding crisis is that infrastructure challenges in key sectors like electricity can be tackled by investment in smaller, modular solutions and deliver significant impact.
While there has been a lot of focus on the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP), these projects took time to reach financial close and be deployed. In contrast a solar solution deployed for a house, school or small business could be up and running within days.
Not only did this rapidly democratise access to energy, it has been proven to have helped South Africa navigate the worst of the loadshedding crisis by up to 2 full stages.
Similarly this thinking can be applied to the water sector which has historically been dependent on capital intensive piped water infrastructure.
This was an opportunity highlighted in a recent article by Dean Muruven from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Our Impact investment solutions in action:
In conjunction with a partner in the local maritime industry, we have partnered on a project which saw them deploy their ESD funding to support 2 schools in the Saldanha Bay region.
Check it out:
Looking to deploy your ESD funding into water solutions?
There is no question that modular solutions for the water sector are going to be a key part in supporting South African communities in the coming years.
If your business is seeking to align with the above Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and wishes to work with our team to identify solutions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
