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1. Introduction
The idiom "Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink," from Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1797 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, aptly describes the paradox of world-wide water shortages, where water is available yet often inaccessible for human consumption (Zac, 2023). Geographically, 97.5% of the world’s water is unsuitable for human use, except in countries with the financial means to invest in costly desalination processes (Zac, 2023). This global challenge is particularly pronounced in Africa, and South Africa is not exempt. The country is facing an urgent water crisis, where securing safe, reliable, and potable water remains a significant hurdle. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) lags behind much of the world in basic water infrastructure, with over 220 million people lacking access to safe water due to significant investment gaps. The African Development Bank (AfDB) estimates that $64 billion annually is needed to achieve water security across the continent, a target far from being met. Hence, Roodbol (2024) gives a research imperative for water infrastructure development and governance scholars to conduct research to address this crisis.
Furthermore, another imperative emerges for the need for studies to attain Sustainable Development Goal 6, which underscores the urgency for governments to ensure the provision of quality water and sanitation for everyone (United Nations, 2015). While significant research outputs have accrued on SDGs, which replaced Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), evidence exposes that there have not been many changes in the quality and accessibility of water services in many SSA countries. For example, in 2000, only 44% of the population in SSA had access to safe water, compared to 67% in East Asia and the Pacific and 65% in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNDP, 2003). This gap characterises the SDGs era as African governments struggle to bridge the existing infrastructure gaps, with little progress in improving water and sanitation services (Ruiters & Amadi-Echendu 2022). As a result, studies are needed to investigate some of the solutions that have been preferred, such as PPPs. Solutions like PPPs are being recommended against a background where the financial burden of maintaining and developing new infrastructure is beyond the reach of many African governments (Loxley, 2013; Ruiters & Amadi-Echendu, 2022). South Africa is among the African nations that embraced PPPs in its...