FOCUS ON WATER
BY DHESIGEN NAIDOO, CEO OF WATER RESEARCH COMMISSION (WRC)
WATER SUSTAINABILITY The science & technology dividend
W
ater security has been a human occupation since the beginning of time. In fact our transition from a nomadic species to settlement was only possible for Homo Sapiens when our ancestors developed an ability to access and store water to enable year round habitation in one place. This gave confidence to invest in agriculture and the rest, as they say, is history. And yet, all these millennia later water security continues to be elusive. We have just been through a prolonged drought episode, on the back of climate change, with parts of the country continuing to experience extreme water scarcity. The Global Risk Register of the World Economic Forum has had water security through the notion of ‘water crisis’ as one of the top five risks to the global economy for nine years in a row. We add to this the fact that we are experiencing an unprecedented global pandemic. This Nouvelle Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, or COVID 19, has rapidly overwhelmed the global agenda. And water has taken centre-stage in the containment of infections strategy all over the world as we try to flatten the infection curve. All the protocols indicate that regular washing and personal hygiene is a key line of defence against the spread of the virus. And as a consequence, handwashing campaigns have become the highest priority in national interventions. This crisis has put a magnifying glass on the issues of water security and safe sanitation access. All of the
38 | Public Sector Leaders • March 2021
