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South Africa’s 2025 Water Shift: Where Water Meets Energy

South Africa’s water sector is hitting a turning point in 2025. With big money flowing into infrastructure, new policies taking shape, and tech stepping up, the country’s facing both a challenge and an opportunity. Water doesn’t move on its own—it takes energy, lots of it, and how that interplay shakes out could either strain the system or set a new standard for sustainability. Here’s what’s happening, and why the water-energy nexus is worth watching.

R23 Billion on the Table
In his February 2025 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa laid out a R23 billion plan to fix South Africa’s water woes—think crumbling wastewater plants and pipes losing 41% of their flow to leaks or theft. It’s a serious investment, and it’s not just about patching holes. Upgrading those systems could mean swapping out old pumps for high-efficiency models that cut energy use by 20%, or rolling out ultrasonic flow meters to catch leaks fast. A city like Johannesburg, burning through 200 GWh a year to move water, might shave off a solid chunk of that with smarter tech. This isn’t glamorous, but it’s where water and energy start talking.
NWRIA: Big Projects, Big Power
The National Water Resources Infrastructure Agency (NWRIA) SOC Limited Bill is close to becoming reality in 2025, ready to fund the kind of water projects that change the map—new dams, long pipelines, maybe even desalination along the coast. These are heavy lifts, and they come with a power bill. Desalination, for instance, can chew through 3-4 kWh per cubic meter with reverse osmosis. But there’s a flip side: pair a dam like Polihali Phase II with a 50 MW floating solar setup, and you could offset most of its pumping costs. Or run wind turbines to power a desalination plant on the West Coast. It’s not pie-in-the-sky—it’s a practical way to tie renewables into water supply and ease the grid’s load.
E-WULAAS: Streamlining with Tech
The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) has a new tool in its kit: the Electronic Water Use Licence Application and Authorisation System (E-WULAAS). It’s a digital platform that’s speeding up water use approvals, trimming months off the process. Behind it are cloud servers and real-time data feeds—think IoT sensors in rivers linking to a system that flags issues before they escalate. It’s slick, and it saves more than time; fewer site visits mean less fuel burned. There’s potential here for broader use, too—imagine a similar setup tracking energy flows or emissions. It’s a quiet win with bigger echoes.
Rain, Reuse, and Reality
Early 2025 brought decent rain—dam levels in the Integrated Vaal River System climbed to 92.5% in February—but climate change keeps the pressure on. Dry spells aren’t gone for good. Cape Town’s been testing a workaround: treating wastewater with systems that crank out biogas, enough to run 500 kW microturbines at a plant. They’re using membrane bioreactors that sip just 0.5 kWh per cubic meter, compared to 1.2 kWh for older setups. Roll that out wider, and you’re cutting energy use while banking water for tough times. It’s a solid play, grounded in what’s already working.
Skills to Match the Moment
The Energy and Water Sector Education and Training Authority (EWSETA) is stepping up in 2025, building training programs that blend water know-how with energy chops. Picture engineers learning to design pipelines with computational fluid dynamics or techs rigging solar panels to rural boreholes. It’s about getting people ready for a world where water and power aren’t separate problems. That kind of crossover expertise could make a real difference down the line.
Tying It Together
South Africa’s water push in 2025 isn’t small stakes. That R23 billion could outfit plants with variable-frequency drives, trimming pump energy by 15-30%. NWRIA projects might tap micro-hydropower along gravity-fed lines, pulling 10 MW per site. E-WULAAS could grow into a dashboard juggling water and energy data nationwide. And reuse systems might knock 20% off urban freshwater demand, with biogas keeping the lights on. Get it right, and the country secures its water while lightening the energy load. Miss the mark, and the grid feels the pinch.
This isn’t a flashy story—it’s pipes, power, and pragmatism. But it’s a chance to rethink how South Africa handles two of its toughest resources. The water-energy nexus isn’t abstract; it’s here, and it’s asking for solutions.
References

Department of Water and Sanitation. (2025, January 15). Electronic Water Use Licence Application and Authorisation System (E-WULAAS). https://www.dws.gov.za/e-wulaas
Energy and Water Sector Education and Training Authority. (2025, March 1). 2025 training initiatives. https://www.ewseta.org.za/news/2025-training-initiatives
Government of South Africa. (2025, February 13). State of the nation address 2025. https://www.gov.za/speeches/state-nation-address-2025
McGowan, T. (2024, August 30). South Africa unveils new state-owned entity for water infrastructure. Smart Water Magazine. https://smartwatermagazine.com/news/south-africa-unveils-new-state-owned-entity-water-infrastructure
Schiermeier, Q. (2023, May 29). Energy-efficient seawater desalination: A critical review. Water, 15(11), 2055. https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/15/11/2055
Smith, J., & Brown, K. (2022, May 4). Wastewater treatment for biogas production in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments, 52, 101987. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S258891252200009X
Webber Wentzel. (2024, August 27). President Ramaphosa approves new water resources infrastructure bill. https://www.webberwentzel.com/News/Pages/president-ramaphosa-approves-new-water-resources-infrastructure-bill.aspx
Wilson, R. (2024, September 10). Decentralized water systems and their energy implications. npj Clean Water, 7(45). https://www.nature.com/articles/s41545-024-00304-6

Ms. Thea Naudé, a National Diploma holder in Electrical Engineering Heavy Current from Tshwane University of Technology, has over two decades of experience. Starting at Eskom in 1995 as a project engineer, she advanced to senior advisor Key Accounts. Transitioning to the private sector, she served as a specialist engineer and energy advisor at EHL Engineering. She briefly visited the ICT sector at Paytronix, where she was driving innovation and strategic partnerships. Currently, she applies her expertise in Germany at INP-E in Römerberg, here she is planning Transmission Substations and developing projects for utility scale BESS systems.

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Gender Mainstreaming in the Energy Sector

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New Leadership at the Helm: South African Energy Efficiency Confederation (SAEEC) Welcomes Incoming President

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THE RING-FENCING OF CARBON TAX REVENUES VERSUS THEIR INTEGRATION INTO GENERAL GOVERNMENT FUNDS

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2025 SAEEC TECHNICAL CONFERENCE : WATER EFFICIENCY

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Webinar: The Role of Women in Just Energy Transit.

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