MEET THE KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Presentation topic

Turning the tide: Global perspective for sustainable water and sanitation services delivery

Experience

• Professor Kasan has been actively engaged in the water and sanitation

Presentation topic

Turning the tide to ensure that the right to water is realised

Experience

• Alana’s first 10 years in the in the water sector were at the Mvula Trust where she provided policy and strategic support to provincial offices and national government to advance rural water and sanitation supply in the newly democratic South Africa.

• Her next decade was spent leading the International Rescue Committee’s Africa programme. She worked with public, private and civil society actors

Professor Hamanth Kasan

Company/Organisation: International Water Association Title: President Elect sector for the past thirty-five years, locally, continentally and globally.

• He spent ten years in the academic sector and was the Dean of Applied Science at the Natal Technicon.

• He spent 22 years at Africa’s largest water utility, Rand Water and ultimately held the position of General Manager of Scientific Services.

• He is currently independent advisor and consultant on water and sanitation.

Groups, Committees, Boards (Past and Present)

President Elect of IWA (International Water Association), Member of International Programme Committee of Singapore International Water Week (SIWW), Board member and Chair of Strategic Capacity Building Committee: AfWASA (African Water and Sanitation Association), Strategic Advisor to ROCKBlue, Distinguished Fellow of IWA, Honorary Professor: Durban University of Technology.

Alana Potter

Company/Organisation: Head: Research and Advocacy Title: Equality Collective in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to strengthen water, sanitation and governance and accountability systems.

• As the Director of Research and Advocacy at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI), she led a research and advocacy team that undertook legal, policy and social research and advocacy to amplify the socio-economic rights realisation agendas of marginalised people and groups.

• At End Water Poverty, hosted by WaterAid, she led a global civil society coalition of more than 150 civil society organisations in 80 countries that campaigned for the rights to water, sanitation and a safe environment.

• More recently, Lana has led research training at Human Rights Watch, equipping researchers to investigate and hold accountability for violations of humanitarian and international law.

Groups, committees, and boards (past and present)

African Ministers Council on Water (AMCOW) International Task Force; the Unite Nations (UN) Water Expert Group; the Africa Water Justice Network’s interim steering committee; Water Integrity Network’s Supervisory Board; Accountability for Water’s global advisory group; Sanitation and Water for All’s grants committee; the steering committee for the Public Interest Law Gathering; the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR CSO) Coalition.

Presentation topic

How can we improve water governance from a transdisciplinary regulatory perspective

Experience

• Professor Feris has 28 years of experience as an established scholar with international standing and commendable scholarly work with eight years of her experience at a senior management level.

• Prior to holding her current position at the University of Pretoria, Professor Ferris has had numerous leadership roles at the University of Cape Town

Presentation topic

You, me and SANITI – sharing a journey of sanitation disruption

Experience

• He is the executive manager of the key strategic area of Water Use and

Professor Loretta Feris

Company/Organisation: University of Pretoria

Title: Vice Principal

(UCT). She was the Deputy ViceChancellor of Transformation, Student Affairs and Social Responsiveness, and held two positions within the Faculty of Law – Director of the Institute of Marine and Environmental Law and Director of Research.

• From 2004 to 2009, Professor Feris was Associate Professor of Law and Programme Manager of the International Trade and Investment Law in Africa programme at the University of Pretoria.

• She was involved in several roles at the Washington College of Law, American University, Washington DC in the United States of America (USA).

Groups, Committees, Boards (past and present)

International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Academy for Environmental Law where she has also served as a committee member in the Teaching and Training Committee and was requested to serve in a task team that was exploring innovative teaching methodologies for Environmental Law. She has served as an expert in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Montevideo process, focusing on the development of environmental law at a global level. She was one of two lead academics for the development of a global Curriculum on Compliance and Enforcement of Multilateral Environmental Agreements, commissioned by IUCN and UNEP. Professor Feris serves on the board of Biowatch and chairs the Board of Natural Justice, both civil society organisations with a strong focus on environmental justice.

Jayant Bhagwan

Company/Organisation: Water Research Commission (WRC)

Title: Executive Manager: Water Use & Waste Management

Waste Management at the WRC, which focuses on the management of water and wastewater in the domestic, mining and industrial sector.

• He continues to be actively involved in a broad range of areas in the field of water supply, wastewater and sanitation, with current focus being on sanitation technologies for the future, technology innovation and application, social franchising of operations and maintenance, conduit hydropower, benchmarking, reuse and reclamation of effluents.

• Jayant has been the founding member of the Faecal Sludge Management Alliance and serves on the Supervisory Board, as well as founded the International Water Association’s Non Sewered Sanitation (IWA-NSS) Specialist Group of which he is the Chair.

Presentation topic

Governance: Focusing on effectiveness and efficiency to turn the tide

Experience

• Nonhlakanipho Tau is a professional civil engineer with vast experience in management of infrastructure in the public sector and state-owned entities.

• Her latest interest is on aligning