MURDOCH University has hosted international delegates on a mission to solve the current water crisis in Cape Town.
The South African city has placed restrictions on water consumption in a bid to avoid “Day Zero”, when its water resources run dry.
That is expected in July.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWDelegates from the Western Cape Government visited the Murdoch campus last week as part of a tour meeting with Australian experts and policy makers to learn about our experience managing drought and water shortages.
Western Cape’s head of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning Marius du Randt said educating citizens about water conservation and introducing new waste water management strategies was vital to easing the city’s current issue.
“We truly appreciate the opportunity to come to Perth and learn more about the steps that have been taken to encourage awareness of water conservation amongst the population here, and we look forward to communicating these lessons more broadly when we return home,” Mr du Randt said.
Murdoch University water expert Wendell Ela said there was a real opportunity to work with Cape Town authorities to develop a sustainable solution to the water shortage.
“In turn, once a viable solution has been found, we hope to learn more about how to develop future solutions to the worldwide problem of water scarcity,” professor Ela said.
“The regular exchange of information between nations on this issue is vitally important to ensuring we don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time this happens somewhere in the world.”
MORE: International Women’s Day: seven women who are sharing responsibility to #PressforProgress
