SASAqS 1999 Swakopmund (Namibia) congress
(From the SA WaterBulletin of the Water Research Commission)
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The Southern African Society of Aquatic Scientists (SASAqS) gathered at Swakopmund, Namibia for their 35th annual conference, which was held from 27th June to 1st July 1999. Gathering at Swakopmund gave delegates the chance to see some of the most water-scarce areas in southern African.
Water as the limiting resource in arid regions, the need to preserve the ecological health of our aquatic resources, as well as research and management of water, were some of the main themes of a very successful conference which attracted water scientists and managers to Swakopmund from all over southern Africa.
More than 160 delegates from most of the countries in southern Africa attended the conference which was organised by Namibian members of the Society under the able direction of Shirley Bethune of the Namibian Department of Water Affairs. The conference attracted an encouraging diversity of disciplines and specialities: 32 water resource managers, mostly from the government sector; eight members of conservation organisations; and a large number of post-graduate students from the universities; as well as the professional and academic researchers who make up the majority of the Society's membership. Proceedings were dominated by river ecologists, but there were also sessions presented by estuarine and marine scientists; fisheries biologists; hydrologists and geomorphologists; and by specialists on wetlands and lakes.
The conference was opened by the Namibian Minister of Agriculture, Land and Water Affairs, the honorable Helmut K Angula, who emphasized the importance of fresh water in aiding Namibian development, but also warned about the need to protect water resources for sustainable utilisation.
The advantage of attracting a mixture of disciplines as well as managers and researchers is that the presentations and discussions can address the real problems of providing urgent short-term solutions to water supply problems - many millions of people in southern Africa still do not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation - while protecting the ecosystems which provide the water. This theme of sustainable utilisation and protection is very much at the core of the new South African Water Act passed by the SA parliament last year, and many of the conference presentations addressed methods of implementing the ecological sections of the new act.
The conference ended with a banquet sponsored by NAM Water and Rössing Uranium, at which the Society's silver medal was presented to Dr Tally Palmer of Rhodes University for her contribution to the ecological principles in the South African Water Act, and a gold medal was presented to Professor Charles Breen of the Institute for Natural Resources in Pietermaritzburg, for a life-time of excellent contribution to research and training in the aquatic sciences. Professor Breen supervised many of the students who are now senior researchers in the field of water research. Presently he is also the Managing Director of the Kruger National Park Rivers Research Programme, and has been instrumental in the development of the Consortium for Estuarine Research and Management.