DBSA SADC WATER FUND

With more than one million people in the SADC region still without access to safe drinking water, and even more living with inadequate sanitation facilities, the SADC Water Fund is pivotal in efforts to finance projects that will effect change where it is Mamarinyana Ratsaka, most needed. Head Infrastructure Programme Management “The development of strategicin the Infrastructure transboundary and pro-poor waterDelivery Division of the supply and sanitation infrastructure isDevelopment Bank of one of our core mandates, along withSouth Africa. the promotion of climate-resilient solutions that support the socially disadvantaged, through regional integration,” says Mamarinyana Ratsaka, who heads Infrastructure Programme Management in the Infrastructure Delivery Division of the Development Bank of South Africa. The Fund was initiated in 2012, with a financing and project agreement between the SADC, the German investment and development bank KfW, and the Development Bank of South Africa. Two years later, a further agreement mandated the Development Bank of South Africa to kickstart the first phase of the fund.

“Our current focus is on two ongoing projects, one in the Zambian border town of Kazungula, and a cross-border project in the towns of Lomahasha in Swaziland and Namaacha in Mozambique, both of which will deliver more reliable and potable water to tens of thousands of people living below the poverty line,” Ratsaka says.

Q&A

What is the SADC Water Fund’s primary mandate?

“In effect, the Fund is a regional water financing facility tasked with three things: improving regional water and sanitation infrastructure, mobilising and leveraging partner funding towards the sector, and coordinating such financing. Practically, the role of the Fund is to identify and invest in priority projects, primarily in low-income communities, and to coordinate and support their implementation. In line with the water-related Sustainable Development Goals, these need to have the capacity to deliver sustainable water and sanitation solutions, for maximum regional impact.”

Tell us more about the Zambian and Mozambique projects, and how these speak to the transfrontier focus of the Fund’s activities:

“The Euro6-million Kazungula Water Supply Project, for example, is particularly interesting given its geographic location at the new Kazungula Bridge across the Zambezi River, connecting Botswana and Zambia, which has supercharged a key transport corridor. With existing water and sanitation infrastructure already inadequate for the town, which also borders Namibia and Zimbabwe, this new project will address the needs of both locals and those in transit well into the future.

“The Euro12-million Lomahasha-Namaacha cross-border water supply project, meanwhile, will provide water services to these mountaintop border towns in Swaziland and Mozambique, the location of which makes provision both difficult and expensive. In real terms, the aim is to supply safe drinking water and sanitation to 100 000 people, and to irrigate 1000 hectares of land. Not only will this boost health and economic activity, but also create employment opportunities that will ultimately reduce food insecurity and poverty.”

Can you share some of the fundamental lessons learnt so far?

“I think the first is that implementation of regional projects demands the commitment of national governments and country contributions, in the form of staff, finances and tax exemptions. Government buy-in and a sense of local ownership is a critical element for long-term sustainability and success. Secondly, we have determined that financing through a fund structure, which allows for collaboration and harmonisation of standards and benefits across the region, is far superior to a piecemeal project-financing approach.

“Finally, and probably one of our biggest lessons as an executing authority of transfrontier projects, is the need to be sensitive to the dynamics of individual member states.”

How is the water-energy-food nexus embodied in your programmatic approach?

“There are three specific elements: Firstly, improving water and sanitation transboundary infrastructure along major trade corridors is key to promoting regional integration, and addressing rapid urbanisation due to increased cross-border trade and traffic volumes. The second is investment in pilot projects featuring locally relevant innovative technology, financing and governance models. This contributes to a resilient water sector in major cities in transboundary catchments.

“Thirdly, the creation of transboundary water information systems will support relevant hydrological and metrological data collection. This is critical to inform the creation of sustainable infrastructure that is risk-prepared, and can adapt to the vagaries of climate change.”

SMART CITIES

Smart cities will revolutionize the way we live.

Nowadays, 50% of the total human population lives in cities. Studies predict that 35 years from now, that percentage will rise up to 75%. That means we need to find a home to 3 billion people in just 35 years.

And, if we want future cities to be smart cities, not every building is good enough. We need our skyline to be made up of buildings that are, amongst other things:

• Sustainable: The buildings where we work and live create almost 50% of CO2 emissions on the planet. Smart buildings are designed with sustainability in mind. This means things such as low-energy houses, natural materials (like cork, clay or recycled paper,) renewable energy use, or waste reduction.

• Secure: We’re talking about buildings with integrated fire prevention systems or intrusion and access control. Obviously, it’s also essential to protect the building’s systems from hackers.

• Cost-efficient: There are many ways in which a smart building helps its inhabit ants save money. It detects occupancy patterns and adapts how much energy it consumes. Cooling and ventilations are regulated automatically. Sensors are able to detect potential maintenance problems and stop them before they happen. And so much more.

Sustainability is key in the development of any Smart City, and it is closely related to some other challenges we’ve already talked about throughout the article. We have mentioned traffic or sustainable buildings. But, hey, there’s a lot more:

• Waste management: Smart Cities need to face different problems related to waste management, such as overfilled trash bins, unoptimized truck routes or the need to separate mixed materials for recycling. Well-applied technology can definitely help solve these kinds of issues. For example, sensors attached to trash bins can measure fill level, send an automatic alert if it reaches a certain limit and automatically optimize collection trucks’ route. • Energy: “The city of the future will definitely be energy-efficient. It might even produce energy instead of consuming it.” Those aren’t our words. They’re

Daniyar Tanatov’s, Partner Account Manager at Spaceti. "It would be great if future cities were self-sustainable, meaning that they should produce the energy they consume. The main challenge for this is convincing companies and governments to invest more in this area." How do cities produce more energy than they consume? Turbines or solar panels on rooftops are a possibility. Or even solar walls - buildings with solar panels incorporated into their facade. • Working hours: Unexpected, maybe? Current working hours levels vastly exceed what we could consider sustainable, concluded research conducted by thinktank Autonomy. Fewer working hours would mean less commuting, fewer products manufactured and less resources used. Technologies such as Artificial

Intelligence could help overcome a challenge that, nowadays, seems unsolvable.

An energy efficient building is generally a better environment in which to work and is significantly less expensive to run, so an owner can potentially justify a higher price if they want to sell or impose a higher rental for office space

Building owners in a race against time to clock in on Energy Performance Certificates

An Energy Performance Certificate is not new, the Regulation on the mandatory display and submission of the Energy Performance Certificate for buildings is derived from the National Energy Act 34 of 2008. The EPC Regulation was published on 8 December 2020 in the government gazette Notice 700 of 2020 and signed into effect by Mr SG Mantashe, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy of South Africa as a Regulation of the National Energy Act ,1998 (Act no. 34 of 2008). This Regulation obliges accounting officers of organs of states and owners of buildings whose buildings fall within the required occupancy classifications, A1 (Entertainment and Assembly), A2 (Theatrical and Indoor Sport), A3 (Places of Instruction) and G1 (Offices) to comply on or before 7 December 2022, or risk facing penalties of a fine of up to R5 million and/or imprisonment of up to 5 years.

An EPC rates a buildingfrom gradeA – G, indicatinghow efficient a buildingis beingused by the occupants. A D-rating isa benchmarkwhich is in line with the National Building Regulations, indicatingthe best practice for buildings benchmarking the buildingagainst the average figurescontained inthe SANS 10400-XA: 2021 Standards. The EPC Regulationdoes not penalise Accounting Officers or building owners for any rating,however, the primaryobjective in enforcing complianceto the EPC Regulations is to makeAccounting Officers or buildingowners aware of their buildingʼsenergy consumption, this will encourage them to maketheir buildingsenergy efficient. Todate over 300 EPCs have been issued, this isa fraction of the estimated 250,000 – 350,000 buildings that needs to complywith the Regulation.

The South African National Energy DevelopmentInstitute (SANEDI) is mandatedby the Regulation to maintainthe National Building Energy Performance Register in supportof the Department of Mineral ResourcesandEnergy (DMRE) thiswill helpwith record keepingof all relevant building particulars.

Accordingto the Regulation, an EPC mustbe displayedat the entrance of a buildingand a certified copyof the EPC mustbe submittedby the accounting officer or a buildingowner to SANEDI within 3 monthsfrom the date of issue. The email addressfor submissionsis EPCsubmission@ sanedi.org.za In addition,the EPC Regulation was also promulgatedto actively implementthe targets in the post2015 National Energy Efficiency Strategy (NEES) which statesthat buildingsneed to reduce their energy consumptionby 16% by 2030. Buildingsalone contribute about30% to 40% of the worlds carbon emissionstherefore, it is imperative that government promotesenergy efficiency and climate change consciousness through the improvement of buildingsʼenergy performance, hence, energyefficiency interventions likeEPCs that support policy formulation. Lastly, accountingofficers and buildingowners need to complywith this Regulation by7 December 2022 which isonly 11 weeks fromnow! For more information, scan the QR Codebelow or visit www.sanedi.org.za