innovations
At the recent International Water
Association (IWA) Development
Congress, held in Argentina, we, the
water research community, engaged
for three days with some of the
world’s leading water professionals
and agencies on the concept of the
‘new normal’. The notion of the new
normal is well motivated by research
and rests on three primary pillars.
The first is climate change.
The reports to the Bonn COP23 of
the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change are
explicit, in that the phenomenon
is both real and accelerating. The
characteristics include generally
increasing temperatures in the form
of both higher averages, as well as
new records in many parts of the
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In many ways, water as a sector
is, at such, a Janus moment. We
have clarity on the challenges
of water scarcity in South Africa,
having survived almost four years
of one of the most severe drought
episodes in our modern history. This
came on the back of the world’s
highest-impact El Niño events in
more than 20 years.
Meeting the targets of access to safe
water and improved sanitation for
all the people in the world by 2030,
presents some special demands.