Overstrand Municipality is one of the top performing non-metro municipalities selected to benefit from the Western Cape Government’s new financing initiative, the Sustainable Infrastructure Development and Financial Facility (SIDAFF) Programme.

With the SIDAFF facility, selected municipalities can combine their respective water and wastewater projects into a single portfolio, attracting investment from major international funding institutions that may not typically support smaller-scale, individual projects.

Overstrand Executive Mayor, Dr Annelie Rabie, explained that this facility will tap into both local and international finance, grants, and donor funding to secure much needed additional resources for key municipal water and wastewater infrastructure.

A total of 17 projects, worth over R2.2 billion, have been identified across Overstrand, Drakenstein, Stellenbosch, Mossel Bay, Swartland, Breede Valley, George, and Saldanha Bay, and are currently in the prefeasibility (or early planning) stages.

This form part of the R72 million in grant funding secured from the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) and R35 million from the DANIDA Sustainable Infrastructure Finance (DSIF), a division of Investment Fund for Developing Countries (IFU).

Anton Bredell, the Western Cape Minister for Local Government, Environmental Affairs, and Development Planning, explained: “These financial contributions are helping us to get to the R110 million needed for the next phase of this project, where the identified projects will move from feasibility to bankability. The French Development Agency also played a key role in successfully completing the first two phases of the project, and Green Cape has been a support partner throughout.”

The Minister added that several factors are making water security and water quality the next major challenge for towns and cities in South Africa: “Climate change expected to make the Western Cape hotter and drier, and our growing population is putting increasing pressure on available water resources. Wastewater works that operate beyond their design capacity are polluting our rivers and ground water, creating significant health and economic risks. In addition to these, is the deterioration of government finances, making it harder for municipalities to maintain or develop water and wastewater infrastructure.”