WATER LEADER
Walking away on a high After a decade at the helm, Dhesigen Naidoo bids farewell to the Water Research Commission (WRC). Water&Sanitation Africa asks him a few questions about his time as CEO and his view on the water and sanitation sector.
Over the past 10 years, what are some of the most important achievements of the WRC? The end of my 10-year tenure coincides with the 50th year anniversary of the WRC. After reviewing the past 50 years, and then zoning into the past decade, the word transformation comes to mind. Considering that the first 23 years of the WRC’s existence were during apartheid, transformation may be an incongruous word. But the first level of transformation from the beginning of the WRC was around a tacit recognition that higher levels of knowledge, innovation and engineering excellence
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were needed to grow an economy in a water-scarce country. Before the inception of the WRC, there was only a systematic approach in getting water to mines, Eskom, Sasol and the agricultural industry. The year 1971 saw the beginning of a more scientific, organised approach towards water management for the entire country. Since 1994, the WRC has worked hard to encourage and nurture a diverse water researcher, practitioner and innovator base. Over 70% of project leaders are black males and females. This success is due to the mentorship of older scientists and researchers that worked for the WRC
pre-1994. The previously disadvantaged have been embraced and the WRC has focused on expanding capacities in the system, instead of discarding the existing capacity to build new capacity. I am extremely proud of the high levels of transformation within the WRC. Another highlight of my tenure has been the internationalisation of South Africa’s water and sanitation Research Development and Innovation (RDI) enterprise. We now have the benefit of using the expertise from some of the best institutions in the world to examine and solve many of our water and sanitation issues. We are one of
