By Thapelo Molefe
President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched the Global Outlook Council on Water Investments, which is a G20 Presidential Legacy Initiative intended to elevate water to the top tier of global political and financial agendas.
“Water investment must no longer be an afterthought at climate and finance discussions. It must be at the centre… It must be financed, tracked and championed,” Ramaphosa told the opening of the Africa Water Investment Summit in Cape Town on Wednesday.
The launch of the council will see the Africa Water Investment Programme scaled up into a Global Water Investment Platform.
It will track progress, unlock finance and align efforts across the G20, multilateral development banks and the private sector.
Ramaphosa stressed that the platform would mobilise government leadership, capital and innovation that was required to transform water from a crisis sector into an opportunity sector.
The summit has four clear goals.
It will endorse a Summit Declaration that commits delegates to scale up investments, improve governance and increase accountability in the water sector, and showcase a pipeline of 80 priority water investment projects from 38 countries.
The meeting will facilitate matchmaking between governments, financiers and partners.
It will also position water at the highest levels of the global political and financial agenda for the G20, COP30 and the UN 2026 Water Conference.
“Let us leave this summit with deals, pipelines, partnerships and a permanent global mechanism to sustain the momentum,” Ramaphosa urged.
Ramaphosa located the initiative in a decade-long process that began with the UN/World Bank High-Level Panel on Water in 2016, whose recommendations birthed the Africa Water Investment Programme and set a target to mobilise at least US$30 billion a year by 2030 to close Africa’s water investment gap.
“If we rise together, water can become not just a means of survival but a driver of economic transformation, innovation and peace,” he said.
He credited the G20’s growing focus on water that was initiated under Saudi Arabia’s 2020 presidency and sustained by Italy in 2021, Indonesia in 2022, India 2023 and Brazil in 2024.
“We are bringing Africa and international partners together and calling on investors to heed the call to invest in water,” Ramaphosa said.
He announced that South Africa would lead the council alongside three co-chairs. They are United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
They will be supported by alternate co-chairs, including former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed, who will help facilitate broad engagement among members.
The council’s invited leaders include Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Angolan President and African Union Chair Joao Lourenco, and Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who will co-host the UN 2026 Water Conference.
“I wish to applaud these leaders, who have stepped forward to confront and overcome a challenge faced by billions of people across the world,” he said.
Citing South Africa’s recent mega-project momentum, Ramaphosa pointed to last week’s launch of the second phase of the Zuikerbosch water purification plant in Gauteng, which is part of a development that will add 600 million litres a day to the network meet demand across four provinces.
“This flagship project is a demonstration of our government’s commitment to infrastructure investment, economic upliftment and ensuring sustainable water supply for future generations,” he said.
The President called for a new global consensus on water.
“Let us build a world where every drop counts and every community thrives. Let us build a world where water is recognised as a human right and not weaponised against women, children and communities,” he said.
With matchmaking sessions scheduled during the summit, Ramaphosa appealed directly to investors saying the sessions should create long-lasting partnerships and increased investments in water.
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