The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) is mandated by the National Water Act, 1998 and Water Services Act
1997 to be responsible for national water resource infrastructure and supporting municipalities with the provision of water
services. To support the implementation of the National Water & Sanitation Masterplan, DWS has designed and
implemented the National Water Partnerships Programme (NWPP) comprising of several sub-programmes within the
water sector that will address specific challenges facing the sector.
The DWS has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the South African Local Government (SALGA) and the
Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) to jointly implement the programme. To give effect to the NWPP, the
parties have established the Water Partnerships Office (WPO)which includes the following:
- The development of a standardised programme for the preparation, funding and implementation of projects
within the water sector - Providing support to municipalities and water boards to prepare, fund and implement projects according to a
standardised approach - The development of innovative and blended finance funding solutions, that will unlock and enable private sector
investment in the water sector - Facilitating partnerships with the private sector and other key stakeholders
The Project Preparation Specialist will be responsible for the preparation of projects accepted into the project preparation
pipeline. This entails one or more of the following roles: scope or define a project that is in an early preparation phase,
for projects scoped/defined facilitate public bidding for participating in the project and conduct feasibility studies.
