WISA • BIENNIAL CONFERENCE 2022
NAVIGATING OUR WAY THROUGH A STORM With the ‘Day Zero’ water crisis in the Eastern Cape, floods in KwaZulu-Natal and pollution issues nationwide, the WISA Biennial Conference could not come at a better time. Water and sanitation are front and centre in the national discussion, and we can hopefully leverage this attention to drive action. By Neil Macleod, technical committee member, WISA
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ur previous WISA Biennial Conference in 2020 was held virtually due the Covid-19 pandemic. While the world battled a health storm, the 2020 conference called for #AllHandsOnDeck where the focus was to ‘keep the ship afloat’. More recently (after five Covid-19 waves), regulations around maskwearing, events and Covid-19 tests for incoming overseas travellers have been repealed. This has a positive impact on WISA’s upcoming event. For this conference, we have kept the nautical theme and have chosen #NavigatingTheCourse. As the water sector, we find ourselves off-course when measured by the lived experience of our passengers – both the residents of Southern Africa and the economic activities that support them. It is our responsibility to correct this. We need to evaluate where we have been, where we are and where we want to get to.
4. Batten down the hatches: Respond to climate change. 5. Learn the ropes: Harness the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. 6. Matters ashore: Address environmental water quality and sustainable groundwater issues. 7. Stem the tide: Management and regulatory issues – Blue and Green Drop, professionalisation of the sector, address skills shortages, manage stakeholders effectively and develop capable institutions. WISA has received over 250 abstract proposals for posters, workshops and presentations. Our panel has finished reviewing all the proposals and a programme will be released shortly. There is a high standard of abstract proposals and the programme is going to be filled with very relevant presentations that provide new
thinking and methods to tackle existing problems. In addition to the presentations, the conference will afford delegates valuable networking opportunities where experience and knowledge can be shared and relationships built. In addition to the presentations, there will be tours in the Johannesburg area, some of which will be technical (visiting plant sites, viewing places where new technology has been deployed) while others will be non-technical (visiting museums and historic sites). The conference will be a hybrid event that will allow for both in-person and online attendance.
Programme
There will be seven subthemes: 1. D on’t abandon ship: Leave no one behind – reach SDG 6, listen to our customers’ needs and those of vulnerable communities that are unserved. 2. R ock the boat: Rethink sanitation in a circular economy – reuse, resource and energy recovery, off-grid solutions and reinvent the toilet. 3. R un a tight ship: Improve water-use efficiency and demand management across all sectors of water users; mining, agriculture, industry and municipal. J UL / A U G 2022
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