YWP

YWP-ZA was delighted to be a part of WISA 2022 as the water sector came together again in person following the Covid-19 hiatus.

Jessica Fell received the First Runner Up Award for Best Student Presentation

YWP at the WISA 2022 Conference

The conference provided an opportunity for several of the new 2022-2024 committee members to meet in person for the first time and served as a space for many young professionals to connect, gain exposure to the sector and share their work via many presentations. Opportunities for community building and strengthening ties through formal and informal connections are vital to YWP as we empower young professionals to navigate and grow in the sector.

Denmark

YWP-ZA (South African Young Water Professionals) is one of the many International Water Association (IWA) YWP chapters from all over the world. Several Young Water Professionals Denmark (YWP-DK) committee members also joined the conference, where both YWP-ZA and YWP-DK co-hosted an interactive workshop titled ‘Megatrends and workforce of tomorrow: Young Water Professionals at the forefront’. This was a continuation of a similar workshop that occurred at the IWA World Water Congress & Exhibition. The workshop identified gaps and provided insights to young professionals on the skillsets needed to face increasingly complex water challenges in a rapidly changing world. For example, the workshop pondered issues from urbanisation to big data to cybersecurity.

Additionally, the two chapters had a dialogue on high-level water challenges and solutions, facilitated by the Danish embassy in South Africa with Jørgen Erik Larsen (Danish Growth Advisor in the Strategic Sector Cooperation Programme). The discussion covered the respective water challenges facing the two countries, with a South African perspective on socio-economic issues and political, governance and resource constraints and a Danish focus on water quality and pollutant concerns, and partnerships with industry. The meeting of YWP-ZA and YWP-DK at the WISA 2022 Conference and IWA marks an exciting collaboration between the chapters.

Soft skills for women in water workshop

Meetings

The YWP-ZA 2022-2024 committee had an informal meet and greet with the new Water Research Commission CEO, Dr Jennifer Molwantwa, a truly inspiring woman in water. Her genuine passion for youth in the sector shone through during the meeting – the committee was thrilled to find out that she was one of the first members of YWP-ZA in 2008. There are exciting areas for potential collaboration between the two organisations such as YWP-ZA linking with the WRC graduate programme, supporting women in STEM and building science communication capacity among young professionals.

A meeting was similarly had with WISA CEO Dr Lester Goldman and other head office staff who will be working together to grow YWP-ZA and WISA. Ahead of Wetskills in early 2023 in Cape Town, YWP-ZA met with Wetskills managing

YWP-ZA and WRC CEO Dr Jennifer Molwantwa (third from right)

director Johan Oost to explore a partnership and ways to include young professionals. The Wetskills Water Challenge brings together multidisciplinary and international teams to work on real-life cases from companies and governmental organisations. There are collaboration opportunities through YWP-ZA, which supports participants and case study owners, and has a presence throughout the challenge.

Conference participation

Local YWPs were involved with a number of oral and poster presentations and hosted a variety of workshops. Some highlights were: • Eugene Fotso Simo (national coordination lead) presenting on his Zutari work titled ‘Flexibility in the face of project constraints - A case study of Moorreesburg WWTW’. • Craig Tinashe Tanyanyiwa (national finance lead) presenting on his University of Cape Town (UCT)

PhD ‘Towards urban MAR in Cape Town's retrofitted multifunctional stormwater ponds’. • Jessica Fell (national marketing lead) presenting her UCT PhD

‘Evaluating the multi-functional potential of stormwater ponds: planning support for a Water Sensitive City transition in Cape

Town, South Africa’, for which she received First Runner Up for

Best Student Presentation. • Ashton Mpofu (outgoing national lead) – together with YWP committee members Sibusiso Mhlongo, Nontando Vungwana,

Thulani Mlilwani – hosted a workshop on ‘Time value of money and beyond: Promoting SMMEs through timely payment by utilities’. The workshop was mainly attended by representatives from the private sector (SMMEs), and government departments including water service authorities and water boards. The workshop presented the procurement processes, typical reasons for delays, and solutions to improving the payment of SMMEs by government. On top of the list of solutions was raising awareness and educating SMMEs about the procurement processes, how to avoid bottlenecks and eliminating the human impact in the process and delaying authorisations by embracing digitalisation.

Mbali Sibiya

Mbali Sibiya, outgoing transformation lead, YWP-ZA, facilitated a workshop titled ‘Water Treatment Quality: A works perspective’, which was held in collaboration with Universal Water Solutions and the WISA Process Controllers Division. The workshop aimed to highlight water quality issues that are experienced in a day’s work in a water treatment works and how these problems are identified and solved. It also aimed to increase awareness in water and wastewater quality standards and guidelines, as well as promote a positive response to water and wastewater quality incidents as outlined in the incident management protocol.

Furthermore, the workshop can be used as a tool to inform trainees and graduates of the water and wastewater quality objectives and how these objectives are met in any water and wastewater treatment works.

Attended by engineers, process controllers, water utility staff, people working in supply chain management and finance, as well as graduate recruitment and private businesses, the workshop was interactive and there was a lot of sharing of information related to the troubleshooting, operation, optimisation and monitoring of water treatment works.

Sibiya also facilitated a workshop titled ‘Soft skills for women in the water sector’. The workshop sought to identify the skills that

women in the water sector needed the most in order to succeed and be visible.

Leading women

The WISA 2022 Conference provided a space for new connections to be forged, old friends and colleagues to meet, pressing water challenges to be discussed and for YWP-ZA to move forward strengthened. Five female leaders in the water sector facilitated discussions on transformational leadership, women and networking, emotional intelligence, women and finance, and the road travelled by young female professionals withing the sector: • Dr Jennifer Molwantwa (CEO of the WRC) spoke on transformational leadership, where she shared her own journey and insights, and encouraged women to become transformational leaders that motivate, inspire and transform people.

She called on women to be part of the vision of a sustainable water sector by being active and involved. • Sheila de Carvalho (board chairperson at

PLAMA and director: Leading Markets,

Royal HaskoningDHV) spoke on women and networking, highlighting the importance of networking in the water sector. She shared her personal growth and development in the sector and encouraged networking. • Silindile Mtshali (process and quality manager, Umgeni Water) spoke about emotional intelligence and the role that a high EQ plays in ensuring success for female leaders in the water space. She highlighted that women are by nature emotional creatures and this is not a bad thing; it can be used positively to enhance one’s leadership. She also encouraged the participants to be self-aware and empathetic, facilitating an interactive session where participants were able to apply themselves to different scenarios. • Mendy Shozi (founder and president,

South African Youth Parliament for

Water) gave her own insights on how

the sector can be improved to be more inclusive and accommodating to young professionals, in particular women. • Daya (COO, Universal Water Solutions) closed the session by discussing finance and imparting ways in which women can become financially smart and how to use this skill to grow and develop in the sector. Daya shared her journey in the corporate industry and how that lead her to be a co-founder of her business Universal Water Solutions, as well as the challenges and successes of being a female water entrepreneur. She encouraged women to be risk takers and use all the skills gained from the workshop – from leadership skills to networking and emotional intelligence – to actualise the ideas they have in mind and become problem solvers in the sector. She encouraged women to “adjust the money mindset” and start looking at water as a source of income.

YWP-ZA and WISA CEO Dr Lester Goldman (centre)

The meeting of YWP-ZA and YWP-DK marks an exciting collaboration between the chapters