Last week, in my capacity as MMC for Utilities and Regional Operations, I had the opportunity to meet with His Excellency Tobias Elling-Rehfeld, the Ambassador of Denmark to South Africa, to discuss governance and service delivery matters of mutual interest.
During the meeting I was accompanied by City of Tshwane management officials where we all had extensive engagements on the cooperation between the City of Tshwane and the Danish Embassy through a three-year City-to-City collaboration with the City of Aarhus, the second largest City in Denmark, focusing on water management.
It is important that we continue to work with our Danish partners and Aarhus Water specifically to share ideas and learn international water management best practices on a variety of critical areas. These include reducing non-revenue water losses, optimising our waste water treatment plants and developing a water security strategy to improve our resilience. The value of this collaboration is R30 million and will run from 2023 to 2025.
We are also exploring ways to finance critical infrastructure projects that have the potential to positively impact the City’s water and energy landscape. For example, potential financing will assist us to harness hydro energy generation embedded in our reservoirs that have the capacity to generate the operational energy requirements of these reservoirs.
The first phase determined the feasibility of hydro energy generation at Salvokop Reservoir. This untapped potential will help the City to alleviate part of the electricity challenges it faces.
In mid-September 2022, I will lead a delegation from the City of Tshwane to Denmark to participate in the 2022 International Water Association World Water Congress and Exhibition in Copenhagen.
This trip is wholly funded by the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group and the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) and will allow us to be a part of a high-level summit focusing on water solutions to shape our water future.
During the congress, we will also have opportunities to interact with potential technology partners and learn about world-class best practices that can be applied to our context.
In addition to participating in the congress, we will visit our partners at the City of Aarhus and Aarhus Water to further build relations between our two cities.
Strategic partnerships like this are critical to ensure that our City steers a course towards a water-safe future and provides sustainable and sufficient services to all residents. Such partnerships also contribute positively to supporting the City to implement its Climate Action Plan.
I am grateful for the hand of partnership extended by the Danish Embassy and look forward to intensifying our efforts to build a better Tshwane for all.