The private sector has been urged to play a more coordinated and active role in addressing South Africa’s water challenges, with the Strategic Water Partnership Network (SWPN) calling for greater mobilisation of business in support of water and sanitation reforms.
Delivering a message on behalf of the private sector during a national ministerial webinar on Friday, Professor Mike Muller of Wits University said while large water users are already involved through the Strategic Water Partnership Network, a far broader range of businesses depend on reliable water services and must be drawn into the reform process.
“It is very important for us to mobilise and organise the private sector more effectively,” Muller said, noting that water security is critical not only for industry, but also for the communities that businesses serve.
Muller said SWPN, despite being a relatively small organisation with limited resources, has prioritised key areas from the 2025 Water and Sanitation Indaba resolutions where it can have the greatest impact. These include improving delivery and implementation models, strengthening technical and operational capacity, and building partnerships to support water-sensitive and resilient communities.
While acknowledging the importance of investment, financing and efforts to combat corruption, he said the network has chosen to focus its efforts where it can drive practical outcomes.
“We need to be focused to be effective,” he said.
Muller noted that an institutional framework for water governance is already taking shape, including the establishment of catchment management agencies. He said businesses should be encouraged to engage more actively with these structures to address local water challenges, although many companies still require guidance on where and how to participate.
He added that SWPN’s water stewardship initiatives will play a role in facilitating this engagement, particularly for large national companies operating across multiple regions.
In the water services space, Muller highlighted the importance of utility reform models and pointed to existing partnerships in metros such as eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and Gauteng, where collaborative platforms for water security have already been established.
He said a key priority for SWPN is to extend similar support to smaller and more dispersed municipalities, where capacity constraints are often most severe.
“We need to find ways to extend that kind of support to other municipalities and levels of local government,” Muller said.
On technical capacity, Muller said SWPN would build on its work over the past decade in reducing non-revenue water, noting that such programmes are now widely adopted across municipalities. However, he stressed the need to ensure that these gains are sustained through systemic reforms and improved long-term management.
“We must ensure that the progress we make is embedded in broader systems of water services management,” he said.
Muller also underscored the importance of partnerships at community level, encouraging businesses to work alongside municipalities, civil society and local stakeholders to address specific water and sanitation challenges.
“There are lessons from existing models that can be built on, but the key is to mobilise and scale up business participation,” he said.
He emphasised that stronger collaboration between government, the private sector, civil society and research institutions is essential to achieving the objectives of the Indaba resolutions.
“The core purpose of SWPN is to strengthen meaningful collaboration between the private sector and government in addressing water challenges,” Muller said.
Looking ahead, he said SWPN aims to expand its network of partners and improve coordination within the private sector to ensure greater impact.
“We believe we can achieve more coherence and more impact through a more organised and collaborative private sector response,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
