WRC Symposium 2013

Abstract

Fluid Thoughts Fluid Thoughts WRC CEO, Dhesigen Naidoo On 25 September we witnessed a remarkable occurrence. As a special event of the WRC Symposium, the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee (PPC) on Water & Environmental Affairs had an open dialogue with South Africa’s water scientists. Port folio Committee Chair, Johnny de Lange (MP) called it a ‘People’s Parliament’ . A part from this being the first time for this type of inter action between legislators and water scientists outside the hallowed halls of Parliament, it gave resonance to the very important notion of creating a sustainable dialogue between the science community and political decision-makers. Much has been said and written about the knowledge chasm, where on the one side you have scientists claiming that they have many of the scientific solutions needed to address South Africa’s water challenges, and on the other side the decisionmakers and water users feeling Building bridges between science and decision-making insufficiently supported by science to enable better and smarter management of our precious water resources.

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