SASAqS 1999 Swakopmund (Namibia) congress
From the SA WaterBulletin of the Water Research Commission.
The Southern African Society of Aquatic Scientists gathered at Swakopmund, Namibia, for their 35th annual conference, held from 27 June to 1 July 1999. Gathering at Swakopmund gave delegates the chance to see some of the most water-scarce areas in southern Africa.
Water as the limiting resource in arid regions, the need to preserve the ecological health of our aquatic resources, and the research and management of water were some of the main themes of a very successful conference which attracted water scientists and managers 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. It attracted an encouraging diversity of disciplines: 32 water resource managers, mostly from the government sector; eight members of conservation organisations; a large number of post-graduate students; and 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 by estuarine and marine scientists, fisheries biologists, hydrologists and geomorphologists, and specialists on wetlands and lakes.
The conference was opened by the Namibian Minister of Agriculture, Land and Water Affairs, the honourable Helmut K Angula, who emphasised the importance of fresh water in aiding Namibian development but also warned of the need to protect water resources for sustainable utilisation.
The advantage of attracting a mixture of disciplines, 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 lack access to clean water or adequate sanitation — while protecting the ecosystems that provide the water. This theme of sustainable utilisation and protection is at the core of the South African Water Act passed by parliament the previous year, and many 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 lifetime of excellent contribution to research and training in the aquatic sciences.
Gold medal
At a ceremony in Pretoria during the previous week, the Society’s gold medal was presented to Professor Kader Asmal for his visionary direction of the development of the new South African Water Act. At the time this was only the sixth gold award in the 36 years since SASAqS / LSSA was founded.