Against the backdrop of climate change, and El Niño, up to his usual tricks, South Africa is in the grip of a crippling drought. It is within this context that WISA 2016 promises to be a riveting, not-to-be-missed conference.
South Africa’s current drought situation is the product of three negatives coming into play simultaneously – the Earth’s natural cyclical climate dynamics, global warming and El Niño. Along with these challenges are South Africa’s ever-growing population, high rate of urbanisation and pollution, and, in many instances, ageing infrastructure, which sets the context of the 2016 WISA conference.Dr Lester Goldman, CEO, Water Institute of South Africa (WISA), says, “The theme of this year’s conference is: ‘Water, the ultimate constraint’,” which, in all brevity, hits the nail on the head. Under this theme, a wide range of topics will be covered, in a number of parallel sessions. These include:
- community water supply and sanitation
- environmental aspects
- health-related aspects
- industrial water and effluent
- information technology
- legislation
- management and institutional affairs
- membrane processes
