Upfront: News from the water sector

Abstract

South Africa’s water crisis – interdisciplinary focus needed Mike Muller (former Director-General of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry and currently a Visiting Adjunct Professor at Wits University) has in various media and forums robustly criticised the now well-known political scientist Anthony Turton’s contribution to the water sector. In a Business Day article (2 December 2008) Muller stated that Anthony Turton is not a water expert and at a public debate at the University of Johannesburg argued that Turton knows nothing about water. This criticism stems from and is symptomatic of the academic phenomenon of the gulf between the engineering, natural and the social (i.e. interpretive) sciences. I contend that there is no such thing as a water expert. There are discipline experts who are active and making significant contributions within the water sector (e.g. economists, engineers, natural scientists, social scientists, political scientists, legal specialists, etc.). The context and foci of their contributions will however differ.

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