Pemmy Majodina, Minister of Water and Sanitation, used last week’s 43rd Southern African Development Community metting (SADC), held in Harare, to profile the upcoming AU-AIP Africa Water Investment Summit.
The Summit promises to raise much-needed funds to build climate-resilient water and sanitation projects in Africa.
Africa faces a US$30 billion (around ±R528 billion) annual water investment gap.
The SADC Ministers of Water and Energy Committee are a decision-making body that adopts decisions on regional policies and programmes that are implemented in the entire 16 SADC Member states.
During day two, Majodina said ” we think that from that summit, we will have a concrete plan. Yesterday and today, there has been a discussion about funding, but if, as a continent, as a region we don’t come up with practical methods of doing that, we might come here and talk, but nothing happens to change the situation in our countries. As a continent, we must start being serious and start ringfencing budgets to fund our water infrastructure as well as energy. No country, region nor continent can survive without putting water and electricity as the catalyst for economic growth.”
The Summit will be co-hosted by South Africa and the African Union-Continental Africa Water Investment Programme (AU-AIP), in the context of South Africa’s G20 Presidency, on 13–15 August 2025.
Water resources and transboundary projects were also discussed at the SADC meeting, including the River Basin Organisations and Shared Water Institutions.
South Africa shares transboundary water projects with its neighbouring countries including the Lesotho/Botswana water transfer; Beitbridge/Musina integrated water supply scheme and the Catuane Matutuine groundwater project in Maputo district amongst others.
Picture: Enzo-Tommasi