Written by: Phillip Majeke
WISA Conference brings together experts from a wide range of disciplines to meet, discuss, plan for and present solutions for a sustainable water future in the South African Region. Water is one of the greatest challenges facing South Africa, so governments, stakeholders, partners, and public and private sector participants come together to find innovative ways of managing water to ensure a sustainable and robust water supply for our growing urban populations. The SASTEP team attended presentations, networked with colleagues, and hosted two workshops and three presentations as well as exhibited at the WRC stand.
DAY 1 -28 SEPTEMBER 2022
SASTEP team members attended presentations under various themes such as sanitation in schools, contamination of water resources, water reuse for drinking purposes, circular economy, and access for all. Phillip Majeke, SASTEP Commercialisation Manager, presented on “Achieving 100% flushing water recycle using innovative sanitation systems” and “Gauging the traction of circular economy in the sanitation value chain”
DAY 2 -29 SEPTEMBER 2022
Akin Akinsete, SASTEP Programme Manager, hosted a Workshop on the South African Guide for Selection of Appropriate Sanitation Systems. and other team members would continue to attend presentations on themes such as sludge management and water reuse. Ednah Mamakoa, the SASTEP Technical Officer presented “Municipal sludge challenges and how demo partnership with municipalities will provide more options for managing sludge effectively”
DAY 3 – 30 SEPTEMBER 2022
Phillip Majeke hosted a Workshop on the Water and Sanitation Industrial Master Plan. This discussion was chaired by Akin Akinsete, Jeanette Neethling and Dr Valerie Naidoo shared their insights on Wastewater Treatment Technologies under the main theme of “Rethinking Sanitation in a circular economy – reuse, resource and energy recovery, off-grid solutions and re-inventing the toilet.
Overall, the WISA conference was a huge success that resulted in connecting with many colleagues within the water sector – old and new. We are already looking forward to the next conference which will be taking place in Durban in 2023! For more WISA moments head over to our social media channels.
