WATER MARKET INTELLIGENCE REPORT 2021

The report analyzes the South African urban water market, highlighting a critical funding gap of approximately R33 billion per annum for water and sanitation infrastructure. It identifies three primary investment opportunities: reducing non-revenue water (NRW), implementing non-sewered sanitation systems (NSSS), and wastewater sludge beneficiation. While the Western Cape has planned sufficient supply projects to ensure a surplus, the national context remains water-stressed, with a projected 10% gap between supply and demand by 2030. Key barriers to investment include municipal financial insolvency, lack of technical capacity, and a lack of locally demonstrated technologies.

• South Africa faces significant water scarcity and a projected supply-demand gap of 10% by 2030, even if planned additional water supply projects are implemented.
• There is a substantial funding shortfall for water and sanitation infrastructure, with an estimated annual requirement of R90 billion compared to a budgeted funding of R54.2 billion in 2020/21.
• Non-revenue water (NRW) represents a major loss for South African municipalities, averaging 39.3% of system input volume and resulting in an estimated R44 billion in lost revenue annually.
• The National Water and Sanitation Master Plan (NW&SMP) targets a 15% reduction in NRW nationally by 2030, supported by a seed investment of approximately R676 million from the DHSWS.
• There is a significant investment potential for non-sewered sanitation systems (NSSS) to achieve universal access, estimated at approximately R41.4 billion nationally, with R2.44 billion specifically in the Western Cape.
• Wastewater sludge beneficiation presents an opportunity to divert sludge from landfills and create saleable products, with a potential value of approximately R330 million per year across all metros except Tshwane.
• The Western Cape has a specific plan to divert organic waste from landfills, targeting a 50% reduction by 2022 and 100% by 2027.
• Municipal capacity is a major barrier to investment, with only about 23% of municipalities scoring 'good' in their capacity to implement water projects.
• Financial instability is widespread among municipalities, with consumers owing more than R128 billion for water and sanitation services.
• The City of Cape Town is implementing several augmentation schemes, including the Table Mountain Group (TMG) aquifer and water reuse, to ensure long-term water security.

APA

Mpofu, A. B., & Botha, R. (2021). WATER MARKET INTELLIGENCE REPORT 2021. GreenCape. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/WATER_MIR_2021_31_3_21-3.pdf

Chicago

Mpofu, Ashton Busani, and Rudi Botha. WATER MARKET INTELLIGENCE REPORT 2021. GreenCape, 2021. https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/WATER_MIR_2021_31_3_21-3.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mpofu |first1=Ashton Busani |last2=Botha |first2=Rudi |title=WATER MARKET INTELLIGENCE REPORT 2021 |publisher=GreenCape |date=2021 |url=https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/WATER_MIR_2021_31_3_21-3.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mpofu2021water, author = {Mpofu, Ashton Busani and Botha, Rudi}, title = {{WATER MARKET INTELLIGENCE REPORT 2021}}, institution = {GreenCape}, year = {2021}, url = {https://greencape.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/WATER_MIR_2021_31_3_21-3.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }