By Helen Hulett, co-founder of Resolve Water and Chief Sustainability Officer at AfriGIS
With South Africa having marked National Water Week, water is increasingly being recognised not only as a sustainability consideration, but as a core operational and governance variable.
Helen Hulett, Co-Founder of Resolve Water and Chief Sustainability Officer at AfriGIS. Supplied by AfriGIS
Encouragingly, this shift is already underway. Across sectors, boards and executive teams are beginning to engage with water risk in more structured and practical ways, driven less by abstract ESG requirements and more by the realities of maintaining operational continuity.
While water has historically been managed within corporate social responsibility frameworks, organisations are now approaching it as part of core business resilience. In many cases, this is a natural evolution rather than a disruption – a response to the need for clearer, more actionable information.
From awareness to operational clarity
In the South African context, water risk is not a distant or theoretical issue. It is highly localised and often linked to infrastructure performance, supply stability and municipal systems.
What is notable, however, is that organisations are no longer treating this as an unmanageable uncertainty. Instead, there is a growing focus on understanding how water risk translates into operational impact.
Many companies are already adapting. In water-intensive sectors, businesses are investing in improved treatment capacity, refining supply strategies, and working more closely with public sector stakeholders to maintain system reliability.
This reflects a broader shift: from viewing water as a compliance issue to treating it as part of day-to-day operational planning.
A more practical approach to disclosure and governance
At the same time, evolving disclosure standards are reinforcing the need for greater precision. As the JSE and CIPC move toward IFRS S1 and S2, organisations are being asked to demonstrate how resource-related risks affect financial performance.
Importantly, this is not introducing a new burden so much as formalising what leading organisations are already doing, namely linking risk to operational and financial outcomes in a more structured way.
For boards, this represents an opportunity to strengthen oversight rather than a compliance exercise. Clearer visibility of water dependencies allows for more confident decision-making and more targeted investment.
Improving visibility at asset level
One of the most constructive developments in this space is the increasing availability of more granular, location-specific data.
Traditional risk indicators, such as regional rainfall patterns, remain useful, but they are now being complemented by more detailed insights into infrastructure condition, supply systems, and localised constraints.
This additional layer of visibility enables organisations to differentiate between sites, identify where risks are most material, and prioritise interventions accordingly.
In sectors such as mining and insurance, this is particularly valuable. It allows operators and underwriters to move beyond generalised assumptions and understand the specific conditions under which assets may be affected.
Supporting better decisions, not just better reporting
A consistent theme emerging from board-level discussions is that the challenge is not a lack of awareness, but a need for clearer, decision-ready information.
Where organisations are able to translate water risk into tangible operational and financial terms, decision-making becomes significantly more straightforward. Boards are better positioned to prioritise interventions, allocate capital, and engage constructively with stakeholders.
In practice, much of South Africa’s water intelligence already exists, but it is highly fragmented. Thousands of monitoring reports, infrastructure records, and technical assessments are often stored across an estimated 200 000 individual documents, making it difficult to extract consistent, actionable insight at scale. What is changing is the ability to structure and spatially align this information, allowing organisations to move from fragmented data to a unified, operational view of risk
This is where integrated, spatially enabled data approaches are beginning to add value. By consolidating multiple data sources into a single view, they provide a clearer picture of where risks sit and how they can be managed.
Building resilience as a competitive advantage
As organisations strengthen their understanding of water risk, there are also emerging strategic benefits.
Businesses that are able to maintain production continuity, manage water quality effectively, and demonstrate resilience are increasingly well positioned in relation to investors, lenders and insurers.
In this sense, water risk management is becoming less about mitigation alone and more about long-term competitiveness. Organisations that can operate reliably in constrained environments are likely to have a structural advantage over time.
A transition grounded in practical progress
While the broader water landscape in South Africa remains complex, the response from the private sector is becoming more co-ordinated and more informed.
New tools and platforms are being developed to support this shift, including solutions such as Resolve Water, which aim to provide a scalable data foundation for understanding and managing water risk at an operational level.
These developments reflect a broader trend: a move toward clarity, consistency and practical action.
A measured shift in perspective
Ultimately, the reframing of water risk is less about elevating concern and more about improving understanding. For boards and executives, the focus is increasingly on asking clear, actionable questions:
- Where are our operations most exposed?
- What conditions would disrupt continuity?
- What interventions are required, and where?
With the right information, these questions are becoming easier to answer.
Water, in this context, is not an unpredictable external threat. It is a manageable, location-specific variable. One that, with the right data and governance, can be incorporated into standard business planning.
As organisations continue to build this capability, there is a growing opportunity to engage with emerging data frameworks and pilot initiatives (like the ones launched by Resolve Water) that are designed to translate water risk into practical, decision-ready insight. Early participation in these efforts is likely to give organisations a clearer view of their exposure, while contributing to a more consistent and transparent understanding of water risk across the market.
