Flow: Water experts in South Africa and Tunisia, diplomats, ambassadors, academics and civil society representatives attended the seminar on science diplomacy and knowledge sharing for water management.
A seminar on water management in Tunisia and South Africa, titled The Role of Science Diplomacy on Knowledge and Expertise Sharing, Tunisia-South Africa Experience on Water Management as a Model, was held on 19 June at the Pretoria International Convention Centre.
The event was a collaboration between the department of science, technology and innovation; the South African Academy of Sciences; the Science Diplomacy Capital for Africa and the Embassy of Tunisia in Pretoria.
It was attended by more than 140 people, including representatives from the South African departments of international cooperation, agriculture and health, as well as the African Development Bank for Southern Africa.
Professor Mohamed Fethi Ben Hamouda of the Tunisian National Institute of Agronomy and coordinator of the Tunisian-South African cooperation project; Professor Essam Nouiri, of the same institute, as well as heads of diplomatic missions, diplomats, delegates from South African research centres, the private sector and members of the Tunisian community.
Opening the seminar, Tunisian ambassador in South Africa Karima Bardaoui emphasised the importance of enhancing the cooperation between the two countries in the field of water management. She underlined that the event presented an opportunity to draw attention to the dire water crisis in Gaza, where millions of Palestinians have been denied access to clean water for more than two years, and reiterated the Palestinian people’s right to peace and self-determination.
The programme included speeches by Gugelethu Zwane, deputy director-general for institutional planning and support of the department of science, technology and innovation, as well as by Moses Tembo, of the African Development Bank in Southern Africa.
They both spoke about the efforts made in water management and reiterated the importance of enhancing African cooperation in this field.
A panel discussion was dedicated to the scientific research and cooperation between Tunisia and South Africa on water management. The panel was enriched by the interventions of Jennifer Molwantwa, the chief executive of the Water Research Commission of South Africa, and professors Hamouda and Nouiri. It included presentations by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and the universities of Western Cape, Fort Hare and Stellenbosch.
The session also featured the participation of Professor Abdon Atangana, of the University of Free State, who is the head of the African Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics and who has been recognised as the second ranked mathematician in the world.
The seminar included presentations by civil society activists Ferrial Adam, the executive director of the Water Community Action Network, and Nathan Mariemuthu, the director of the Empire Partner Foundation.
The event was an occasion to introduce Riadh Fatnasi, a Tunisian hydraulic engineer who is working on a water distribution project in Lesotho.
Overall, the talks highlighted the significant level of cooperation between Tunisia and South Africa in the field of water management, as well as the promising opportunities to boost this economically and scientifically.