THE three-day C40 African Water Safe Cities Forum, which started yesterday at Tshwane House, will afford delegates from six cities across the continent opportunities to share their experiences on strategies to address water challenges.
The host, the City of Tshwane, said the conference was staged at a time when many cities were grappling with water supply challenges.
Convened under the theme "Unlocking Water Resilience for African Cities: A Path to a Sustainable Urban Future" the conference attracted participants from cities such as Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, Dakar, Dar es Salaam, the City of Ekurhuleni and the City of Johannesburg.
It is expected that the forum would empower African cities with a better understanding of their water security needs, priorities and collaborative opportunities to address water supply challenges.
Addressing the audience, Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink talked about the importance of sharing experiences, skills and knowledge on water security and management.
“We have to find new sources of water abstraction beyond a single service provider or a single point of failure.
“We have to upgrade a single water distribution infrastructure so that we use less of the water that we distribute to households.
“This is essential and it involves significant infrastructure upgrades and getting best value for money in pipes replacement and other strategies to conserve water,” he said.
Leaders have a mammoth task to change consumer behaviour on water usage, he said, adding “that is the most difficult if there is little trust in the government’s ability to save water and reduce distribution loss”.
Brink threw down the gauntlet to participants to explore more innovative ways to deal with waste water.
He said there were plans in place to lead Tshwane to a sustainable and water-secure future.
According to him, the forum’s key outcome would be to empower African cities with a better understanding of their water security needs, priorities, and collaborative opportunities.
André Nzapayeke, dean of African heads of diplomatic missions, said: "We know many people can survive without electricity, but none can survive without water. Yet the lack of clean water remains the biggest challenge."
Diplomatic missions were ready to continue to provide support to the activities of the C40 cities, he said.
Participants included leading experts in city-level water management, who would deliberate on innovative adaptation solutions tailored to the African context, among other topics.
The forum would also provide a platform for cities to share experiences and collaborate on urban-focused water planning to inspire and drive action in accelerating climate resilience implementation.
Ambassador of Denmark to South Africa, Elsebeth Søndergaard, spoke about the importance of collaborative partnerships for climate-centred water resilient cities.
Pretoria News