Engineering and Financial Realities of Water Infrastructure in South Africa

Abstract

The Government of South Africa has been the main provider of infrastructure, particularly in the water sector. Government administration and institutional structures continue to shape, influence and impose unique complexities and constraints on infrastructure investment. The country experiences a serious backlog in investments for the development and management of water infrastructure. This under-investment was estimated at more than US$50 billion. South Africa needs to find a solution to this backlog by putting in place new or fresh institutional structures and funding models for effective strategic provision of water infrastructure. Primary and secondary data were collected for the development of investment models for water infrastructure in South Africa. The research identified several new funding and institutional models for financing water infrastructure, e.g. private sector, water charges and tariffs, public-private partnerships (PPP), which are starting to get traction in the water sector value chain of South Africa.