The Association of Water and Sanitation Institutions of South Africa (AWSISA) welcomes the establishment of the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency (NWRIA) as a bold and visionary intervention that will fundamentally reshape South Africa’s water future.
NWRIA is a strategic national response to the urgent challenge of securing water fordevelopment, sustainability and future generations.
The creation of the NWRIA comes at a time when South Africa urgently requires a capable, coordinated and financially sustainable institutional mechanism to develop, operate, maintain and finance national water resources infrastructure. The country’s economic plans, industrialisation agenda and developmental priorities cannot be achieved without reliable water supply systems that are resilient, efficient and future oriented.
The importance of this reform has long been recognised in government policy and planning frameworks. The 1997 White Paper on National Water Policy, the Department of Water and Sanitation institutional reform agenda, the National Development Plan and
successive State of the Nation Addresses all acknowledged the need for a specialised national infrastructure authority capable of managing strategic water infrastructure at scale. The establishment of the NWRIA therefore represents the culmination of decades
of policy reflection, institutional reviews and strategic planning.
President Cyril Ramaphosa correctly identified infrastructure investment as central to South Africa’s economic reconstruction and recovery. Water infrastructure, in particular, is not simply a technical matter. It is economic infrastructure of national importance.
Without water, there can be no industrial growth, no agricultural expansion, no energy security, no mining production and no sustainable urban development.
S outh Africa receives roughly half the global average rainfall and faces severe climatevariability. The growing intensity of droughts and floods, driven by climate change, poses an existential threat to long-term water security. NWRIA emerges precisely to confront these realities with greater institutional coherence and financial capability.
For too long, South Africa’s national water resources infrastructure responsibilities hav been fragmented between multiple entities, principally the Department’s Infrastructure Management Branch, the Water Trading Entity and the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA). While each institution made important contributions, the fragmented arrangement created inefficiencies in financing, implementation, revenue management and accountability.
The new Agency addresses this challenge directly by consolidating infrastructure financing, development, operations and maintenance within a single state-owned entity.
This integration is critically important because water infrastructure cannot be managed effectively through fragmented mandates and disconnected financial systems.
Infrastructure planning, debt management, tariff systems, operations, maintenance and project delivery must operate within one coherent institutional architecture.
The significance of this reform becomes even clearer when viewed against the enormous infrastructure backlog confronting the sector. South Africa currently faces a maintenance and refurbishment backlog estimated at approximately R36 billion. At the same time, rising debt within the water sector, including the roughly R25 billion owed to the Water Trading Entity, continues to undermine sustainability and operational efficiency.
The NWRIA is therefore not simply about building new dams, pipelines or transfer schemes. It is equally about protecting and rehabilitating existing infrastructure assets whose deterioration threatens economic activity, public safety and reliable water supply.
One of the most transformative features of the NWRIA is its financial model. The Agency will be empowered to leverage the revenue generated from national water infrastructure assets to raise capital directly from financial markets. This represents a profound shift in South Africa’s ability to finance strategic water infrastructure.
Government has already identified a national water infrastructure development programme exceeding R100 billion. Yet the Department itself lacks borrowing capability.
The NWRIA resolves this constraint by establishing a major state-owned company capable of mobilising off-budget financing, entering blended finance arrangements and attracting private sector participation where appropriate. This is a critical breakthrough.
In an era of fiscal pressure and constrained public finances, South Africa requires innovative funding mechanisms that enable infrastructure expansion without overburdening the national fiscus. By leveraging its asset base and revenue streams, the NWRIA will enable water infrastructure to become financially productive in support of developmental objectives.
Importantly, the Agency’s financing model also creates opportunities for cross subsidisation between economic and social nfrastructure. Commercially viable projects can support investments that advance equity, poverty alleviation and rural evelopment.
This developmental orientation is central to the Agency’s mandate and distinguishes it from purely profit-driven infrastructure models.
The NWRIA’s mandate explicitly recognises the constitutional obligations of the state, including equitable access to water, sustainable development and social justice. Its objects include ensuring a sustainable, equitable and reliable water supply while
supporting national and regional social and economic development objectives. This developmental mandate is particularly important in a country still grappling with deep inequalities in access to infrastructure and economic opportunity.
The Agency’s establishment also reflects international best practice regarding the separation of policy and regulatory functions from operational implementation responsibilities. The Department of Water and Sanitation will retain responsibility for policy development, national planning, regulation and overall water security oversight, while the NWRIA will focus on infrastructure financing, development and management.
This separation enhances accountability, strengthens governance and enables greater institutional specialisation.
The Agency will also play a vital role in enhancing climate resilience. South Africa’s interconnected national water supply systems provide an important buffer against climat shocks by linking river systems and enabling water transfers between regions. However,
maintaining and expanding this resilience requires sustained investment, sophisticated operations and proactive asset management.
NWRIA is specifically mandated to ensure infrastructure sustainability, dam safety, drought preparedness and flood management. These are no longer peripheral concerns.
They are central pillars of national resilience in an age of climate instability.
Furthermore, the Agency has the potential to become a major driver of economic transformation and job creation. Large-scale infrastructure programmes create opportunities for industrial development, localisation, skills development, engineering innovation and empowerment of black-owned and women-owned enterprises. The Agency will leverage procurement, nfrastructure development and operational models to advance transformation objectives. This aligns with the broader national imperative of building a more inclusive and representative economy.
AWSISA strongly supports this developmental and transformational orientation. The water sector must become a platform for inclusive growth, technical innovation and empowerment of historically disadvantaged communities and professionals.
Infrastructure investment must not only deliver physical assets, but must also build human capabilities, institutional capacity and economic participation.
South Africa cannot industrialise, create jobs, expand agriculture, grow cities or combat poverty without secure and reliable water systems. The NWRIA provides the institutiona vehicle to drive that future.
The successful establishment of the NWRIA will, however, require disciplined governance, professional leadership and unwavering accountability. South Africa’s recent history demonstrates that state-owned entities can either become powerful instruments of development or centres of inefficiency and governance failure.
At its core, the establishment of the NWRIA reflects an understanding that water security is inseparable from economic sovereignty, social stability and developmental progress. It reflects confidence in the state’s ability to build capable institutions that serve the public interest. And it reflects recognition that infrastructure investment is not a cost burden, but a strategic enabler of growth, resilience and shared prosperity.
An equally important dimension of the National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency (NWRIA) is its continental and transboundary significance. The Agency is not merely being established as a domestic infrastructure institution, but as a strategic entity capable of advancing South Africa’s long-term regional water security obligations. This includes assuming functions currently performed by the Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority in relation to the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), one of Africa’s most significant transboundary water infrastructure initiatives.
The legislation establishing the NWRIA empowers the Agency to undertake functions both within and beyond South Africa’s borders in support of water treaties and regional infrastructure obligations. This recognises that water security in Southern Africa cannot be addressed through isolated national approaches alone.
The NWRIA therefore positions South Africa to strengthen its leadership role in regional water cooperation and strategic infrastructure development. Rather than fragmented institutional arrangements, the country will now have a unified infrastructure agency capable of aligning regional water transfer schemes with broader national water security and development objectives. In this regard, the NWRIA is also a strategic investment in regional cooperation and African infrastructure integration.
The success of the NWRIA will not be measured only by the infrastructure it builds, but by the stability it creates, the opportunities it unlocks and the dignity it restores to millions of South Africans. This is a moment for bold leadership, long-term thinking and national unity of purpose.
Ramateu Monyokolo is Chairperson of Rand Water and AWSISA
