Water Resilient Cities Program 

City of tshwane & Aarhus

The Strategic Sector Cooperation between City of Tshwane and Aarhus is a city-to-city framework, in which the two cities cooperate in the formulation, design, and implementation of a series of initiatives targeted at improving the service delivery of Tshwane’s water sector. The cooperation started out in 2017 focusing on Sustainable Urbanism, but as it entered its second phase in 2022, the focus was narrowed in to Urban Water Resilience. 

South Africa, and the City of Tshwane in particular, faces many water related challenges, including:

• Issues of water loss (Non-Revenue Water) throughout the distribution system,
• Inefficient and insufficient treatment of waste water,
• Water pollution from industries and
• High dependence on external water transfers.

Additionally, City of Tshwane does not have a water security vision or strategy which is a great policy gap given the above-mentioned challenges and a continuously growing demand for water and sanitation services.

Four thematic tracks

1. Non-Revenue Water:

   Between 30-40% of the drinking water in City of Tshwane never reaches the consumers due to leaks and theft. In Aarhus this number is around 5%. Therefore, the program aims to help minimizing water loss and thereby increasing the city’s revenue. This also involves testing out methods for leak detection and building business cases based on results and impact on the ground.
   
   

2. Wastewater Management:

   Tshwane’s Waste Water Treatment Works are underperforming due to over-capacity and inadequate maintenance. This results in untreated effluent polluting rivers, dams, and drinking water, while the city spends millions annually to deliver clean water to affected areas. By adopting modern technologies, better operational procedures, and drawing on international best practices, as well enhanced regulatory enforcement, the goal is to improve the quality of the treated waste water with 10% and disseminate results to the cities other plants.

    

3. Own Resource Optimization:

   Tshwane is heavily dependent on the national water supplier, Rand Water, who currently supplies around 80% of the city’s water. The city only generates around 12.5% of its own water daily, but there is potential to increase this to over 40%. This would lower the cost and generate extra revenue for the city. Therefore, the track will investigate the potential of extracting other water sources and better utilisation of existing ones.

    

4. Water Security Strategy:

Despite significant water related challenges, City of Tshwane does not have a comprehensive, city wide water strategy. The aim is to establish a sustainable, holistic approach to water management that aligns with the Tshwane Climate Action Plan. A central focus is fostering collaboration across all relevant departments to create an integrated, cross-cutting water security framework, drawing inspiration from City of Aarhus and Aahus Water’s Water Security Vision from 2010.

Additional activities

The cooperation also involves academic and capacity building exchange component, through the Danida Fellowship Center, where city official from City of Tshwane frequently participate in academic courses at leading Danish knowledge institutions. Additionally, a close collaboration with the Danish Sustainable Infrastructure Fund has paved the way for financial support to several infrastructure projects in City of Tshwane.

Stakeholders involved:

 

Name	Activity	Role
City of Aarhus	Local Government	Partner
City of Tshwane	Local Government	Partner
Embassy of Denmark in South Africa (Pretoria)	Embassy	Facilitation of project
Aarhus Vand	Water utility from Denmark	Key stakeholder
RAND Water	Water utility from South Africa	National water supplier
Department of Water and Sanitation	National Government Department responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies governing the water sector	Legislator and regulator of water sector
Water Valley Denmark	Cluster alliance between Danish water companies	Private stakeholder
C40	C40 is a group of 97 global cities focused on fighting climate change	Key international stakeholder for knowledge dissemination
IWA	International Water Alliance	Knowledge and events partner
U20

 

Contact and further information

For further information on the Strategic Sector Cooperation between City of Tshwane and Aarhus, please contact the Embassy of Denmark in Pretoria:

• Sector Advisor, Cities: Gustav Zilstorff Brade
  Email: [email protected]

• Programme Officer, Cities: Akhona Lerato Xotyeni
  Email: [email protected]