Clean dream

The backlog of water infrastructure projects in South Africa is being eased by a ZAR160 million investment.

According to reports in Africa Business Communities and Engineering News, the Norwegian Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund) is funding South African water treatment specialist Nafasi Water Technologies to treat polluted water from mining activities before it reaches rivers and communities. The funding complements funding from original Nafasi investor E Squared Investments.

‘By preventing polluted water from entering rivers and communities, Nafasi is addressing one of South Africa’s most pressing environmental challenges while creating jobs in building commercially viable solutions for the future,’ according to Carl Johan Wahlund, senior vice-president for green infrastructure at Norfund.

The investment will support Nafasi’s move into the public-private partnership space, particularly in the treatment of municipal wastewater treatment and reuse.

‘We have been successful in deploying project-financed solutions to long-run, mining-impacted water rehabilitation projects, and as a natural progression, we now move into the public-private partnership space. We are excited to partner with Norfund and E Squared as we now actively engage in bids for wastewater treatment and reuse,’ says Nafasi CEO Suzie Nkambule.

Nafasi has in the past delivered a desalination plant in Erongo, Namibia, and is developing a process to remove chemicals from waste produced during water treatment.