The Water Research Commission (WRC) is hosting the second in a series of Dialogues on the current drought in South Africa in Pretoria on 27 November 2015. 

Following on from the first Dialogue on 6 November, which focused on identifying research and science gaps, further conversation to expand the science agenda will take place, focusing on drought adaptation and coping strategies, and specifically on understanding our hydrological landscape in the context of the current drought cycle.

During the dialogue the WRC will launch a unique online drought portal that will provide visitors with useful information on the current drought and links to various other drought-related websites.

The ‘Drought SA’ portal  will be an ongoing project and will be continuously populated with fresh research and knowledge that will empower visitors.

The focus of the dialogue will be to discuss whether the country is prepared for recurring drought and what our mitigation and coping strategies are. Other areas of discussion will be the knowledge gaps in drought preparedness and what we should do to bridge knowledge and practice.

SA on water intensive economic growth path

As recently emphasised by WRC CEO, Dhesigen Naidoo, South Africa is a water-stressed country and is on an economic growth pathway that is very water intensive.

This, together with a combination of population growth and change in quality of life, indicates that South Africa will need to have a lot more water available to it in the future.

At the same time, the degradation of water courses, through overuse, pollution and development that compromises ecological infrastructure, means that the country is rapidly organising to have even less water of good quality available to us tomorrow.

As South Africa braces itself to weather increasing drought, the WRC calls on all experts in this domain to pool our expertise and collective wisdom to share and engage on issues related to droughts, as well as to identify the respective roles we can play in assisting the nation to use evidence-based science to inform short- and medium-term action plans.