MEET THE WISA KZN COMMITTEE

The WISA KZN Committee comprises like-minded water sector professionals and stakeholders who are currently active volunteers of WISA and the Southern African water sector.

By Mbali Sibiya

The members comprise utility professionals, municipality employees, higher education and private sector personnel who have all come together with the goal of improving the water status quo in KwaZulu-Natal.

With the vision to ‘Inspire passion for water by catalysing collaborations and leading water stewardship to create community impact in KwaZulu-Natal’, the KZN Committee has formulated a plan for activities that will be utilised to facilitate water education and innovation. The KZN Committee will forge collaborations between all water and sanitation stakeholders in the province and create an impact in communities, particularly those that lack or have limited access to potable water and dignified sanitation services.

The WISA 2024 Biennial Conference will be hosted in KwaZulu-Natal and the committee is planning a one-day seminar, titled ‘Water Sustainability – The role of youth and water professionals in ensuring water sustainability’. The seminar will be held at Mangosuthu University of Technology to discuss and unpack the UN 2023 Water Conference themes and how they translate to youth and water professionals as well as the roles they play in contributing to sustainable access to water supply for all.

Meet the current KZN Committee

The current committee has taken over from a dynamic group who have had an impactful term within various communities in the province during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mbali is an employee of Umgeni Water and has been working in the water sector for the past 12 years in potable water treatment, water quality, chemical process control and treatment process management. She is a motivated water professional whose interests lie in contributing to the transformation and advancement of the water sector, particularly the advancement of the water treatment process currently used in South Africa and other African countries. Mbali has a chemical engineering background, specialising in environment and water resources management. She considers herself an advocate for the attainment of SDG 6, with a passion for ensuring sustainability in the water sector and building resilience of water resources and infrastructure in order to ensure future generations have a sustainable supply of potable water. Mbali aims to use this term to raise awareness on water issues and advocate for sufficient government and private sector support for water sector innovations.

Jacolette is a registered professional scientist who holds an MSc and an LLM in Environmental Law. With 22 years of professional experience in the environmental sector, Jacolette has been responsible for various strategic projects such as the Integrated Environmental Management Programme for municipalities as well as Provincial State of the Environment Reporting. Due to her training as an ecologist/ zoologist, she provides the specialist skill of wetland and ecological assessments. In line with the newer developments in the environmental field, she has obtained valuable experience in compiling biodiversity offset documents and negotiating these aspects with relevant government departments and related authorities.

FINANCE LEAD: DR PREYAN ARUMUGAM-NANOOLAL

MARKETING LEAD: GCWALISILE KUNENE COORDINATION LEAD: VELILE CHILI

Preyan is a senior research scientist at the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Research and Development Centre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She holds a PhD in engineering that specialises in next-generation sanitation technology evaluation and design, and performance monitoring of decentralised wastewater treatment systems. She is passionate about sparking innovation in the sanitation space and driving the sanitation economy to allow all people to have access to safely managed sanitation services. As a promoted Young Water Professional (by age), Preyan plans to use her term on the KZN Committee to empower existing and potential entrepreneurs with opportunities (especially financial leads) to effect change within the water sector. Often, good ideas are lost because of a lack of financial start-ups.

With a passion for water and sanitation, Velile has a desire to continuously improve the drinking water supply and reduce the impact on the environment caused by discharging effluents. The water industry offers a diverse and pleasant working environment and being part of the KZN Committee will grant an opportunity to meet other professionals from different disciplines where various discussions can emerge, such as those tackling emerging technologies and innovative solutions for water management. This will ensure a sustainable water supply for our country, particularly in rural communities.

A professionally registered civil engineer (PrEng) with ECSA, Gcwalisile has 14 years of bulk civil infrastructure design, construction management and engineering management experience. She holds a PG Dip in Management from UKZN, and completed her fellowship admission course with the Association of Arbitrators (Southern Africa) NPC. She has an interest in developing in the area of management of construction-related and professional services contracts, claims and dispute resolution processes, and construction law. In this term of office, she aims to highlight the need for proper dialogue, transparency and fairness between infrastructure implementing agents and communities during infrastructure implementation. This will mitigate the ever-looming threat of project disruptions, which lead to delayed service delivery and higher project implementation costs. These disruptions are a real threat to infrastructure implementation and the realisation of SDG 6.