RFP: Prioritizing Resilient Water Investments for Water Security in Mpumalanga Province

The World Bank

South Africa 🇿🇦

  • SOLICITATION NUMBER: 0002012403
  • INSTITUTION:  IBRD/IDA
  • ISSUE DATE AND TIME: Nov 11,2024 05:37
  • CLOSING DATE AND TIME: Nov 25,2024 23:59

A. BackgroundMpumalanga is one of South Africa’s nine provinces and is in the north-east of the country. It is the coal heartland of South Africa and plays a critical role in national energy security through coal mining and housing coal power plants; which use about 50 and 250 million cubic meters of water per annum respectively. The other major economic sectors include agriculture; mining and eco-tourism; the province forms part of the Kruger National Park and the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. Therefore; the water sector and water security are fundamental in ensuring socio-economic development in Mpumalanga. However; the water sector is stressed and complex. Mpumalanga is part of the following water management areas (WMAs); the Vaal; Inkomati-Usuthu and Olifants. In addition to provincial dams; water resources are heavily augmented by several water transfer schemes; such as the Integrated Vaal River System (IVRS); Vaal River Eastern Sub-System (VRESS) and the Mokolo Crocodile Water Augmentation Project (MCWAP) inter alia and further schemes are being considered. Furthermore; the province is part of four transboundary water courses; the Orange-Senqu; Limpopo; Maputo and Inkomati rivers. Within this inter-connected and complex system; ensuring productive water allocations amongst competing users; while ensuring water resources sustainability and resilience; is a challenging task and water resources are strained.Water and major economic sectors may be affected by climate change in manner that has not been previously captured; such as increased rainfall variability; high evaporation; and more frequent and severe droughts; thus; disrupting water systems; services; social systems; and overall; the aims of the ongoing provincial climate response strategy as well as other expected water security goals of the province. This is supported and highlighted by the NCCRSWS; where bottom-up climate change risk assessments are now part of best practice. Similarly; additional uncertain drivers such as land use change; power generation plant water use changes; population growth and shifts in demographics might also hinder Mpumalanga’s water security; and overall development. At the same time; the economic; social; and environmental structure of the region can be affected by national policy (i.e. just transition) and other climate and growth agendas. This in turn may alter the characteristics of the water sector dynamics in the province. The uncertainty of these often-competing goals and users requires potential interventions to be understood and backed through the lens of hydro-economics. Altogether; a wide range of climatic and non-climatic conditions; with uncertain drivers of change in terms of their magnitude; occurrence; and impact; are expected to change water security aims in Mpumalanga.As result; the Government of Mpumalanga (GoM) has requested the Bank’s assistance to develop a study on prioritizing resilient water investments towards water security in Mpumalanga. This includes prioritizing the investments/interventions proposed by the various strategies; studies and plans; as well as additional options that have since then emerged; considering uncertain future conditions of change.The main objective of this assignment is to develop a provincial water resilience strategy for Mpumalanga. This study will quantitatively assess the risks of climate change for water resources and services and development alternatives vis-à-vis other identified risks unrelated to such change. The study will ultimately look to develop a roadmap and prioritization of investments for a phased adaptation leading to increased multi-dimensional resilience of the Mpumalanga water resources system.The assessment will evaluate trade-offs across in-province water management and services investments as well as inter-provincial and transboundary options. The assessment will include all water uses within the province; namely domestic users; water for agriculture and food security; industrial and other economic uses as well ecosystem services; considering the National Water Act’s principles and stated prioritization of water users as well as the water distribution and other objectives of the NWRS-3. Similarly; dimensions of social equity; economics; finance; and development shall remain a critical component of the assessment and trade-off analysis.

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POSITION TYPE

ORGANIZATION TYPE

EXPERIENCE-LEVEL

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