Sustainable and resilient water supply, sanitation and hygiene services and wastewater management require solutions beyond one-time infrastructure coverage. For example, the average 15–20-year design lifespan of rural water systems is compromised by premature failures within 3-4 years. Consequently, public funds support rehabilitation of existing failed systems rather than expanding access to unserved populations. Thus, improved long-term functionality of systems to deliver water supply, sanitation, hygiene services and wastewater management is imperative to provide reliable access to the poorest and excluded communities. In most countries, services depend on user committees although private sector operators exist. Better accountability around service reliability; financial transparency; and climate resilience is needed across operators to minimise system downtime; strengthen fiscal health; and bolster vulnerability to climate impacts.

As climate disasters increasingly threaten critical infrastructure, water systems are especially exposed, with cascading community impacts. Cost-effective climate adaptation requires community-based approaches that harness local knowledge and capacities. Solutions should demonstrate the interconnectedness between climate impacts on water systems and communities, while expanding inclusive, locally driven adaptation strategies. The need cannot be overemphasised to promote integrated approaches that assure provision of sustainable and resilient water and sanitation services. This includes functionality of climate resilient WASH and wastewater services and systems.

This sub-theme will discuss water supply, sanitation, hygiene and wastewater management including service continuity, financial sustainability, climate vulnerability, and community-centred adaptation. Topics will include:

Assuring water security and reliability in Africa through both natural storage and construction of infrastructures is critical to economic production; climate resilience; and disaster risk reduction. The goal is to increase Africa’s water storage capacity and enhance water-related disaster risk management capabilities. The negative impacts of climate change and increasing climate variability threaten the agricultural sector and the rural economy on which many people in Africa depend for their livelihoods. Projections of a general increase in average temperatures for Africa are predicted to result in increased rainfall variability and incidences of extreme weather conditions. This presents a far greater challenge than scarcity in that both sides of the equation – too little water and too much water – need to be managed under greater uncertainty. Higher temperatures will result in changes in vegetation cover and, in turn, changes in runoff and groundwater recharge characteristics, with consequences on water resources availability due to quality effects.

Changing rainfall patterns and rising temperatures will negatively affect cropping systems and will increase the occurrence of diseases such as malaria. Growing uncertainty in rainfall patterns and shifting crop water requirements, threaten Africa’s largely rain-fed agricultural sector. Furthermore, increased climate variability and climate change and their impacts on the hydrological cycle have implications for water resources distribution and accessibility. These risks and uncertainties including increasing evidence of droughts, floods and other water related disasters, threaten economic productivity and political stability.

Many of the negative impacts of climate change manifest through water. As such, it is imperative to address Africa’s water infrastructure deficit to increase storage capacity; and assure water security and reliability. This represents a great opportunity for efficient and sustainable solutions towards climate change adaptability and mitigation; water-related disaster risk reduction and management; and sustainable environmental resources management. Additionally, cost-effective climate adaptation and disaster management measures and strategies must include community-based approaches that harness local knowledge and capacities. Solutions should demonstrate the interconnectedness between enhancing early warning systems and risk assessments; enabling more proactive and targeted disaster management; and expanding inclusive, locally driven adaptation strategies.

The sub-theme will highlight the role of water as a primary medium through which climate change will have an impact on development. Water resources management should, therefore, be the linchpin for adaptation and mitigation to climate change in Africa. Topics will thus include:

Good water governance through collaborative establishment of transboundary water institutions is key to realise the development potential of Africa’s water resources. Shared watercourses create interdependencies that catalyse cooperation and play a crucial role in supporting livelihoods, ecosystems, and economic activities across the continent. Yet, water resources on the continent are characterised by spatial and temporal variability and are unevenly developed. This has implications for the management of the resource especially to balance and meet competing water needs for economy, people and ecosystems in the face of climate variability and change. Anthropogenic activities and impacts of climate change are contributing to the decline in the quality and quantity of both surface and ground water resources. At the same time the dependency on groundwater is increasing, especially in agriculture, among the vulnerable rural and peri-urban communities.

Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) provides a guiding philosophy to govern and maximise on the benefits of water, land and related resources. IWRM principles are exemplified by the formulation of policies; management instruments; governance arrangements; and measures for financing transboundary cooperation; as well as ensuring broad stakeholder participation at all levels. The promise, therefore, is high for assuring water security. However, challenges exist with respect of operationalising and or implementing the management instruments and institutions. Thus, ineffective water governance systems and management structures allude to missed opportunities to release water’s full social transformative and economic development potential.

This sub-theme will thus focus on water governance systems and management structures vis-à-vis sustainable water resources management to benefit people, the economy, and functional ecosystems. Topics under this sub-theme will cover:

Water resources management in Africa is becoming increasingly complex. As More and more of the available resources are committed to use. In turn, the pollution loads on receiving waters are increasing due to population growth, urbanisation and industrialisation at rates far in excess of existing capacity to deliver related services. These challenges are compounded by frequent floods and droughts which threaten livelihoods, economies and ecosystems.

Effective water management, in these circumstances, requires diverse sets of data on the availability, spatial and temporal distribution, and variability of water quantity, water quality and water use. A lot more data than just the traditional hydro-meteorological datasets are required for making informed water management decisions. By contrast, a worrisome trend is noted of a decline in data collection networks in Africa. Insufficiency of data on water and related resources has major implications on climate-proofing of investments in resource development. Similarly, sustainability of resource utilisation and effectiveness of resource management interventions is called into question.

There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop human and institutional capacity across board to ensure collection, analysis and management of reliable data and information. Implementation of measures to assure social inclusion and a human rights-based approach to water and sanitation services provision similarly require a high level of social and adaptive capacity.

This is the context that will frame the discussions under this sub-theme. Topics will include:

Africa's demographic landscape underscores the urgent need for meaningful social inclusion. Seventy (70) per cent of the continent’s population is below 30 years of age; and women constitute more than half of the total population. Thus, gender equality and social inclusion are key to the continent’s social transformation agenda. Ensuring gender equality and social inclusion entail assessing the implications for men, women, youth, and marginalise communities of any planned action, including legislation, policies and programmes in all areas and at all levels.

Deliberate action is required to track the implications of water management interventions for men, women, youth, and marginalised communities. This spans water related legislation, policies, institutional set-ups and programmes at all levels and in all political, economic and societal spheres. The ambition is to ensure that all benefit equally; and inequality is not perpetuated. This requires a change in the institutional culture, budgeting, resources allocation, sex- disaggregated data collection and monitoring and evaluation among other aspects. Policy reflections, systemic/structural adjustments, innovations, and transformative approaches can close inequality gaps. Collectively, these challenge norms, and propel progress toward more equitable and inclusive water resources management and access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene services.

Underpinned by the commitment to leave no one behind; this sub-theme will facilitate discussions on the central role of gender and social inclusion in fostering to influence sustainable, effective and efficient outcomes for water resources management and access to water supply, sanitation and hygiene services. The sub-theme will showcase transformative approaches and pathways to catalyse meaningful change, and ensure interventions are responsive to the population's diverse needs. Topics will include: