Water and energy demands good news for the sector

Acombination of a rapidly growing population, climate change, and pressure on producers to reduce their carbon footprint is forcing Southern African Development Community (SADC) governments to prioritise water and energy projects. Meeting these demands will require heavy lifting and transport support for years to come. The region added 2 885 MW of new generation capacity in 2024-2025, SADC executive secretary Elias Magosi told a June joint meeting of ministers responsible for energy and water. However, a shortfall of 4 210 MW persists among nine interconnected mainland members, largely due to droughts, ageing infrastructure and limited transmission capacity. On the positive side, projects scheduled for 2025-2027 were expected to deliver over 28 000 MW of capacity, he added. The region also faces significant water challenges, with only about 63% of the population enjoying access to safe drinking water and 37% to clean sanitation, Magosi wrote in the foreword to the Regional Strategic Action Plan V (2021-2025) . “The need for water storage is also extremely high, as only 18% of the region’s annual renewable surface water resources is developed (stored).” Water management and clean energy are interdependent. The SADC puts the regional hydropower potential at 150 GW, of which only 12 GW of power is currently produced. It points out that while 50 million hectares of irrigable land is available for agricultural development in the region, only 3.4m hectares are currently irrigated. International funding is available for the water and power projects. The SADC Regional Climate Resilient Water Programme (SADC-AIP) is supported by the Green Climate Fund (GCF), Development Bank of Southern Africa and the African Union’s Continental Africa Water Investment Programme (AIP). The GCF is the world’s largest climate fund, which supports a portfolio of 314 projects, amounting to $18 billion in GCF resources and $67bn in co-financing. It has provided the SADC with a project preparation grant of $1.5m for the regional water investment programme, which aims to raise $117m to provide water for 140m people in the region. In September 2024, the European Investment Bank and the Development Bank of Southern Africa added R4bn to the R8bn committed in 2022 to fund private sector solar and wind energy projects in South Africa. The European Investment Bank’s Africa Renewable Energy Fund finances small hydro, wind, geothermal, solar, stranded gas and biomass projects across sub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa). ER