Africa has a legacy of water challenges; it looks like the world is unfortunately catching up, there is much to share between water professionals.
Water Memories
World Water Day always resonates with me having grown up on a water scarce farm in Africa. I celebrate my relationship with water through a myriad of activities – scuba diving, water skiing, sailing, kite surfing, white water rafting, jumping off cliffs into lakes. I remember one specific experience, which probably solidified my water career. I was 8 years old, and for some reason I was allowed to let the water hosepipe run, which resulted in water flowing downhill. My role was to channel the water down a very dry embankment infront of our house to a nearby lake. It felt like hours while I navigated handmade streams, rivers, canals, dams, tunnels.
PS: I do sometimes wonder how much water it takes to make a water professional, and if I managed to provide enough benefit for all the water, I wasted that day…
Our Beliefs vs. Reality
As water professionals, we believe we are laser-focused on providing clarity. Armed with the idea that collaboration and partnering is a quick win, we sometimes forget that harnessing the collective strength and wisdom of diverse stakeholders is a very difficult skill, which not everyone has. We forget that having the best idea, a full stack of processes and technologies in place, still does not guarantee anything, as people are the ultimate verdict of what will happen.
We think that innovation will solve our problems and that the water industry isn’t innovating quickly enough, failing to realise that innovation is a discipline that is very difficult to master. Although there is a rich field of literature and practical use cases on “innovation management,” it is still not appreciated as a crucial field of study, like Engineering, Law, and Medicine.
SWAN in Africa
Attending the first SWAN Africa Workshop in Cape Town solidified my belief in the power of collective learning to address global water challenges. Africa’s experiences with droughts, faltering infrastructure, and mass migration offer invaluable insights into managing water scarcity and its community impacts. Through the SWAN network, Africa can both contribute to and benefit from global innovations and strategies.
“Day Zero” is a global reality – just look at the current water crisis unravelling in Mexico City. We can all learn from each other by openly sharing failures, lessons learned, and emphasising the key role of collaborative innovation.
The Secret Sauce
As I look forward to the SWAN Vancouver Conference, I’m eager to reconnect with old friends and forge new, lasting relationships, navigating an industry that demands a nuanced approach to innovation, whether leading or adopting a “fast follower” strategy. So, instead of focusing on Systems Thinking, Semantic Analysis, Behavioural Economy, and all those methodologies that will save us, today I want to leave you with my favourite quote, which I am sure many will recall:
“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the people to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”
– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
