READER LETTER | Water summit raises hope for Africa

Last week, leaders, policymakers, financiers and water sector experts gathered at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for a three-day Africa Water Investment Summit.

The gathering was a call to action and perhaps Africa’s most decisive opportunity to reframe water not as a peripheral issue of service delivery, but as the very foundation of economic growth, social justice and climate resilience.

According to the African Development Bank, more than 300-million people on the continent still lack access to clean drinking water, while climate change threatens to intensify droughts, floods and unpredictable rainfall.

Yet water is not just about taps and buckets. It is about agriculture and food security. It is about reliable energy generation through hydropower.

For Africa, this initiative presents a rare opportunity to mobilise billions in blended finance that can unlock large-scale infrastructure projects, from bulk water supply schemes to wastewater recycling and digital water technologies. Importantly, it also creates space for public-private partnerships (PPP), ensuring that governments do not carry the burden alone.

But beyond finance, the initiative has symbolic power: it elevates water from being treated as a “silent utility” to a presidential and global priority.

Africa is not merely a beneficiary of water investments; it must be an innovator and driver. Already, countries such as SA, Kenya and Morocco are pioneering desalination, reuse and integrated river basin management.

Initiatives like the Lesotho Highlands Water Project show how transboundary co-operation can yield both economic and political dividends.

The Africa Water Investment Summit provides an opportunity for African leaders to speak with one voice, calling for long-term, sustainable financing, technology transfer and capacity building. But more importantly, it is a chance to chart a vision of water as an economic enabler rather than a cost. – Maria Lebese, DWS