Virtual Roundtable Meeting / Workshop on Mainstreaming Water-Sensitive Design and Planning (WSUDP) into City Planning in South Africa

Today cities in South Africa and across the Global South face the enormous task of dealing with future growth, water scarcity issues, climate change impacts andequitable access to essential health care and better water management. In addition to this, cities are currently grappling with a pandemic; and while the impacts of COVID 19 are still being understood, it does seem clear that this disruption will make cities (re)-think how we can integrate Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning (WSUDP) in our development scenarios.

WSUDP allows cities to mimic the natural water cycle and helps to  address local and city level concerns on water supply management, pollution abatement and urban flooding, that can not only restore the water cycle in urban areas but also help build urban resilience in the wake of climate change. Key WSUDP strategies include rain/stormwater harvesting, decentralised wastewater treatment and local reuse, and water-efficiency and conservation interventions at different scales – single building, neighbourhood, zone, or region.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India under its global water programme and jointly with our local programme partners in South Africa - Water Research Commission (WRC)and University of Cape Town (UCT) has over the past 5 years trained more than 150 practitioners from South Africa and other African nations on the planning, designing and O&M of WSUDP projects. The Future Water Institute at UCT has also developed a Community of Practice (CoP) for implementation of WSUDP across towns and cities of South Africa.This roundtable meeting cum workshop is organised by CSE jointly with WRC & UCT. 

Aim & Objectives

The overall aim of this short workshop is to connect with key water sector players and practitioners (including training courses alumni) and discuss opportunities for mainstreaming WSUDP in city planning in South Africa. The key objectives are to:

• Engage in a multi stakeholder dialogue and experience sharing on mainstreaming WSUDP in South Africa and India
• Understand existing WSUDP enabling frameworks – Policy, Planning, Programmes and Projects - in South Africa
• Identify opportunities and challenges in implementing WSUDP interventions in South African cities
• Identify target cities for implementation of WSUDP intervention as model projectsand develop these as learning centres for other cities   

Workshop Coordinators

India	South Africa
Dhruv Pasricha Programme Officer, Urban Water Unit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India Email: dhruv.pasricha@cseindia.org	Dr Kirsty Carden Interim Director, Future Water Institute University of Cape Town, South Africa Email: Kirsty.Carden@uct.ac.za

For more information, contact the following:

India	South Africa
Dr Suresh Kumar Rohilla Senior Director & Academic Director, School of Water and Waste - AAETI, CSE, India Email: srohilla@cseindia.org	Jay Bhagwan Executive Manager: Water and Wastewater Water Research Commission, South Africa Email: jayb@wrc.org.za