Private sector innovation and public sector scale are necessary to develop the water reuse and reclamation technologies that will help South Africa meet its urgent water needs.

South Africa will not be able to meet its water needs in the near future without reusing water that has already been used for sanitation and industrial purposes. “Securing South Africa’s water future will require a proactive approach to diversification of the water mix to sustainably meet future needs amid the growing pressures of climate change and increasing demand,” says Jay Bhagwan, chair of the 14th International Water Association (IWA) International Conference on Water Reclamation and Reuse, hosted in Cape Town. "Water reuse presents a major opportunity in regions facing significant water challenges. In South Africa, the adoption of water reuse practices is expected to accelerate in the near future."

The conference brought together scientists, engineers, policymakers, and industry leaders to share cutting-edge solutions in water reuse, a critical field facing increasing urgency due to climate change and water scarcity. Among the delegates and sponsors were many representatives from the private sector, which is a critical partner in the development of the water reuse sector.  Three factors contribute to the success of reuse projects – technology, financing and circularity - and the private sector has an important role to play in each of these.

Technology

Water reuse is a slightly more complex way of dealing with the water resource and its reclamation, and it represents different types of technical challenges, which requires stable, reliable technology. Technologies need to be implemented effectively, so the first thing is that the private sector must take that leadership so that government doesn't have to – enabling the risk of technical performance to be outsourced, but also effectively performance managed.

One of the event’s sponsors, Xylem Inc., provides water technology through a number of brands and across the value chain, from pumps and rotator blades to metrology – the measurement of consumption – and software platforms. “It was really exciting to hear everybody talk about reuse,” says Vinesan Govender, Engineering Manager at Xylem.  “The technology is robust, and proven. It's just great to now see that there's an uptake in terms of bringing projects live for this.”  

Several promising new technologies were highlighted at the event. The Generation 2 Reinvented Toilet (G2RT), for example, neutralizes waste at the source, rather than relying on the expensive infrastructure of pipes and gallons of water to move human waste for centralized treatment.  Membrane hybrid processes combine membrane filtration - like microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, and reverse osmosis - with other technologies, such as biological treatment or advanced oxidation to enhance wastewater treatment and water reuse. And technologies like photolytic ozonation using UV-LEDs are emerging as promising alternatives for existing processes.

Finding the Money

The second area where the private sector has a role to play is in the financing of projects. “The financing gap in water security is staggering—$6.7 trillion is needed by 2030, rising to $22.6 trillion by 2050,” notes the World Bank’s Global Water Practice head Saroj Kumar Jha who spoke at the conference. “Governments alone cannot fill this gap—we need private sector engagement. Blended finance models, climate bonds, and resilience bonds can help bridge the funding gap but remain underutilized.”

Financing reuse projects can be a complex challenge. “In reuse projects, the ticket sizes are slightly smaller, but more complex to structure - the structuring and the financing of a reuse project must be an effective collaboration between the government entity, the development funding institutions and private sector entities themselves,” explains Suzie Nkambule, CEO of event sponsor Nafasi Water.

“Improving the value of water as an asset class is essential to its investability,” she says. She believes that a paradigm shift is underway. “We've been thinking about water from a scarcity type of mindset, which at times creates a very interesting challenge when we're dealing with the investment community. Improving the overall net value of water through the focus on recycling and reuse and beneficiation is changing the conversation about water as an asset class.”

A Circular Water Economy

The third role for the private sector is investing and exploring opportunities for sustainability and circularity in the water value chain. For example, with the reuse of water comes the question of disposing of waste byproduct while protecting the ecosystem, and this is a problem that requires both engineering resources and market development resources to solve. This type of innovation can really only happen at sufficient scale through private sector leadership and government partnership. 

A flagship project in the area of sustainable water reuse is the New Goreangab Water Reclamation Plant (NGRP) in Windhoek – operating since 1998. Since 2002, the plant has been run by a joint venture created by Veolia, a French water, waste and energy solutions company – also a sponsor of the conference. The plant produces 21 000m3 of clean, potable water a day using a combination of treated wastewater and water from a nearby reservoir – about 30% of Windhoek’s total demand. Windhoek is one of the only cities in the world to recycle its water from domestic use, and the only one that does so at this sort of scale. It manages this at a lower cost than transporting water from distant sources, like the ecologically sensitive Okavango River.

To bring water reuse to meaningful scale, the private sector needs a supportive regulatory environment – and this requires a government that’s onboard for adoption of new strategies and technologies. “If we do not allow ourselves to partner with people with a proven track record in addressing and maintaining, in building, in operating the infrastructure, then we are going to be in trouble,” said the Honourable Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation Isaac Seitlholo addressing a session at the conference. “There is no reason why government must be at the forefront of everything. There are public partners, private partners, who are ready to address these issues. We as government must just create an enabling environment in order for them to be able to do so.”