University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Centre in Water Research and Development. - South Africa

Globally, water resources are under threat. Increased urbanisation, increased industrialisation, increasing populations, climate change and pollution all have deleterious effects on water as a resource. Concomitant with the threat are a number of confounding factors: globally there is a scarcity of skilled people, especially in the water space. Climate change is having a large impact not only on the location of rainfall, but also in the intensity of rainfall. And across much of the world, the last few years have seen some of the worst droughts in recent history, especially in Southern Africa, a problem which is exacerbated by aging urban infrastructure. More