networking contributor innovations industry debate environment infrastructure municipalities world of highest local terrestrial temperatures . This is mirrored with rising sea temperatures . The erosion of the polar ice sheets and glaciers in many parts of the world corroborate this changed world .
In many parts of the world , the argument has been strengthened by more frequent extreme weather events . This is true in the form of extended and extreme drought episodes in southern Africa , barrelling , almost sequential , hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico and typhoons in the China Sea , with major flood events in South Asia and Europe . This new weather pattern is indeed global . Its longevity seems highly probable , as we have witnessed in the 100-year precipitation record in South Africa .
This is not an event ; it is a trend to a new normal pattern .
The second pillar is that this comes in combination with a high population growth that is already greater than seven billion souls on the Earth , heading to nine billion by 2050 on the most conservative scenario . Of the nine billion people on the planet at that time , it will be 6.3 billion urbanites with only 2.7 billion rural cousins .
The third is that all of this is in an increasingly connected world on the back of the Fourth Industrial Revolution . This means the end of isolation of impact — what happens in even the remotest of places , to some degree or another , rapidly has a global impact .
We have this critical Janus moment for water and sanitation practitioners . The discussions at the IWA converged on many important matters . First is the acknowledgement of the new normal . The second is that we must radically change our water management strategies and protocols . This includes new standards , and best practice to accommodate the new innovative management that is required to ensure water security and reliability of service , from the smallest village to the biggest metropole .
This is particularly pressing in the wake of the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs ) that we all have signed up to under the auspices of the United Nations . The ability to meet the targets of access to safe water and improved sanitation for all the people in the world by 2030 , and maintaining the reliability of that access into the future , presents some special demands .
It means smarter water security tools , mainstreaming water reuse , and recycling institutionally through towns and cities as part of the new infrastructure . It means water demand management as the norm , as opposed to anecdotal exception . It means new taps like desalination and managed aquifer recharge-supported groundwater access .
Clearly , this has implications for the capacity of the individual practitioner on what constitutes the water management team and , of course , the size of the practitioner base that is required going forward .
It all sounds incredibly daunting . Yet , my anxiety level , as a member of Water Team South Africa , is not that high . The progress of water management has always been the enabler of human development . Our first efforts to harness water facilitated the development of agriculture , which in turn allowed humankind to emerge from our largely nomadic phase to begin the first permanent settlements .
The ability to ensure the sustainability of the different models of development has always had water professionals at the core — and the water professionals have always delivered . I am sure that the water and sanitation fraternity will once again rise to this new challenge .
It is my hope that 2018 will be characterised by these pioneers , and new recruits to these cadres , carving out the new water and sanitation paradigm to ensure even higher levels of water security , access , and reliability in the wake of the daunting challenges thrown at us by the new normal . u
“ We must radically change our water management strategies and protocols . This includes new standards , and best practice to accommodate the new innovative management that is required to ensure water security and reliability of service , from the smallest village to the biggest metropole .”
WRC
Dhesigen Pydiah Naidoo , CEO of the Water Research Commission .
40 Water Sewage & Effluent January / February 2018