The interview was a precursor to his participation as a panellist for the Southern Africa-Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA-TIED) policy dialogue held on 18 March 2024, ahead of World Water Day.
The SA-TIED policy dialogue recently centred around the long-term impact of infrastructure planning on energy and water sectors and its relation to climate change.
During the eNCA Today interview on Tuesday, 12 March 2024, Dr Cullis underscored the escalating urgency of global climate events, particularly in the water sector. The need to address policy plans to combat the climate crisis has become more pressing with relentless extreme weather changes and recent floods, storms, and droughts in the Western Cape and Kwa-Zulu Natal. This follows the focus of the SA-TIED dialogue, financing infrastructure development in the context of climate change, which, according to Dr Cullis, draws on a crucial element of ensuring developmental needs for climate change. “This is part of the SA-TIED workstream on the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus in the context of climate change,” he states, adding that though South Africa has had a long history with extreme weather, and a challenge around ensuring water security, there has been a significant development of well-integrated infrastructure systems, similar on droughts, we have good standards and policies accounting for floods.
Dr Cullis asserted the aim of the policy dialogue as a discussion to workshop measures to finance and implement infrastructure that withstands the increasing stress of climate change and social pressure. Elaborating on innovative partnerships refers to collaborations between Public Private Partnership (PPP), society, and academia. These partnerships aim to develop and implement creative solutions to climate change and infrastructure development challenges, which are crucial in addressing the climate crisis and promoting sustainable development.
Dr Cullis expressed confidence in South Africa’s ability to develop a bankable pipeline of climate-resilient projects, saying “Several of the projects have already been identified in the water and energy sectors. We have an idea of what is needed to provide this resilience, and it is a matter of getting it implemented and pulling together not only investment and the financing, but the capacity to implement, operate, and manage it going forward.”
This confidence is backed by the evident impact of Zutari’s enduring history of support for water resource planning and the development of critical water infrastructure in South Africa. From supporting the review and updating of the Southern Reconciliation Planning studies, to drought operational support for the City of Cape Town and the involvement in the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, spanning work from Ninham Shand developing the initial project concept in the 1950s.
