The City of Cape Town has signed a financing agreement of R77m with German Development Bank, KfW, to support the implementation of its Water Strategy. The funding will be used in the appointment of expert services to help with institutional restructuring, resource management, water demand management and sustainable wastewater management.
The strategy includes five commitments:
- Safe access to water and sanitation;
- Wise water use;
- Sufficient, reliable water from diverse sources;
- Shared benefits from regional water resources;
- Becoming a water sensitive city.
“The grand focus areas will additionally enable the city to achieve an internal vision to become the first African city to be a leading water provider of the world and in doing so, provide safe access to quality water and sanitation services, ensure water resilience and create a shared water future for all,” said Zahid Badroodien, mayoral committee member for water and sanitation.
Achievement of this will be measured by being admitted as a member of the ‘Leading Utilities of the World’ within the next three years, which would make the city the first African utility to achieve this.
“Since July 2020, the City of Cape Town has conducted an internal consultative process to detail the scope of eight transversal programmes for KfW support. The programmes are designed to provide a set of practical, implementable and costed initiatives to embed the water strategy into the city, and fully achieve the water strategy commitments and achieve Leading Utility of the World status,” said Badroodien.
Some of the key programmes that this funding will be used for are water demand management, sewer spills reduction and waste water treatment, etc.
