Bang on time
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A water wake-up call
Never mind the complicated stochastic hydrology graph projected on the screen – it was the loud clap of Highveld thunder that drove Professor Mike Muller’s point home. Speaking on “Managing Climate-Related Risks” at an alumni networking event at the Wits Club on 19 April, he was talking about the right time to panic about water supply.
A welcome shower fell on the day, but many of the 80 alumni and guests in the audience were there because they were worried about Johannesburg – or anywhere else – facing a water crisis like Cape Town’s.
Representing a range of professional disciplines, from philosophy to chemical engineering, they heard the Wits School of Governance water expert say that water is not a physical or technical problem as much as one of governance. It’s about people listening to each other, being informed, speaking up, looking at the big picture, planning and acting in time. It’s about understanding vested interests too.
“The challenge is how to make things happen in the real world,” said Prof Muller.
People have all kinds of reasons for the decisions they make (or avoid making) when confronted with a problem like water management. And the water issue, in particular, touches the lives of all kinds of people in multiple unavoidable ways. This is why Wits’ new Centre in Water Research and Development seeks to bring together many different perspectives and disciplines in dialogue and collaboration.
“This is our generation’s problem,” said Professor Craig Sheridan, the Centre’s head, to the audience. Water crises are made by people, and the Centre aims to create leaders and visionaries who will work on solutions together.
For more about water-related research at Wits, see the “Watershed” issue of Curiosity magazine – named with a nod to the University’s position on the "White Water Ridge", which directs Joburg’s rainfall to different oceans.
For photos of the alumni networking event, click here.
Enquiries about alumni networking events: Yumna.Patel@wits.ac.za or Purvi.Purohit@wits.ac.za
