Alumni Expert Seminar in combination with the International Trade Fair IFAT Africa 2017

International DAAD Alumni Expert Seminar “Efficient Water Use – Waste and Waste Water Management”, 05th to 11th of September 2017

in combination with the International Trade Fair IFAT Africa, 12th to 14th of September 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa

The Expert Seminar was conducted at Pretoria, thereafter participants visited the international trade fair IFAT Africa http://www.ifat-africa.com/ at Johannesburg Expo Centre, one of Africa’s largest conference and exhibition venues in South Africa. The Expert Seminar was organised by University of Siegen in cooperation with the German Association for Water management, Waste water and Waste (DWA).

The seminar reflected the topics of the trade fair: “Water Sewage, Refuse and Recycling” with the objectives: 

• to increase sensitisation for the sustainable use and management of the resource water
• to improve networking of the local actors, and
• to exchange experience and strategies available in the region regarding the efficient use of water and water distribution systems, waste water collection and waste water treatment, and technologies to measure and control water pollution including laboratory techniques,

In preparation of IFAT Africa, a match making process was initiated to arrange contacts between educational institutes, authorities and the business sector in South Africa.

15 Alumni from 11 African countries participated in this Seminar to exchange ideas, to learn new technologies and concepts, and build new contacts for professional cooperation.
A field excursion organized by the Federation for a Sustainable Environment (FSE), with all participants concentrated on the legacy of gold mining within the Witwatersrand goldfields, the rehabilitation of mine contaminated wetlands, eco-systems and receptor dams within the Witwatersrand gold fields with particular focus on the West Rand, Gauteng.

At the IFAT Africa 2017, Alumni participated in the DWA session: "Technology Adaptation – Sewage and Sludge Treatment", organized by German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) by co-moderation, scientific presentations and contributions to the following discussion.

In addition to advanced training, an important goal of these alumni special projects is networking – between research and industry, between theory and practice, and between old and young. Experienced alumni were members of the jury for the "University Challenge" that the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) organises for students at fairs outside Germany. The "University Challenge" was based on a simulation game asking students to construct a rational infrastructure for water supply and waste water disposal in a fictional landscape with the aid of DWA environmental maps. The winning team from the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, South Africa, will be travelling to IFAT in Munich in 2018.

With the foundation of the APIWEC initiative, the African Professionals’ Initiative for Water, Energy, Environment and Climate, Alumni expressed the willingness to work together to overcome environmental and water problems emerged during the seminar. APIWEC is now a group at Alumniportal Deutschland and will get officially registered in 2018.
Read the Johannesburg declaration of APIWEC here.