Webinar 11: Water Sensitive Urban Design and Planning (WSUDP) in South Africa

Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India, in partnership with Water Research Commission (WRC), South Africa and Future Water Institute, South Africa organised an international virtual training programme on WSUDP for African practitioners. The training was conducted in two parts:

• Part A (Online Moodle Platform): 14-20 July, 2020
• Part B (Virtual Training): 21-22 July, 2020

As a component of Part-A, a series of webinars were scheduled, in order to facilitate interaction between the participants and various resource persons working of WSUDP in South Africa. Details of the webinars are as follows:

Inaugural Webinar, 14 July 2020

The inaugural webinar introduces the training programme to the participants. Dr Suresh Rohilla, Senior Director - CSE shares his experience of the WSUDP programme in the global south, and the role of CSE and its partners in this initiative. Mr Jay Bhagwan, Executive Manager - WRC provides the context of the training, by highlighting the linkages between WSUDP and developing resilience against the pandemic, and climate change. Ms Shivali Jainer, CSE shares the details of the training programme: The course structure, a demonstration of the Moodle Platform and other details.

Experience-sharing Webinar-I, 15 July 2020

For this experience-sharing webinar, we have Dr Kirsty Carden, Interim Director, Future Water Institute (University of Cape Town, RSA) and Dr Lloyd Fisher-Jeffes, Water Resources Engineer, Zutari (Cape Town, RSA) providing highlights of the Water Sensitive Cities Index bench-marking process for Cape Town (undertaken in partnership with Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC), Australia)

The Index is developed by CRCWSC. The speakers share their experience in customizing the methodology for Cape Town, and throw light on the potential uses of such an index in bringing about structural and non-structural reforms in the urban water sector.

Experience-sharing Webinar-II, 16 July 2020

For this experience-sharing webinar, we have Jane Eagle, Deputy Director: Open Space Planning, Water and Biodiversity Directorate, City of Johannesburg, RSA. She has extensive experience in urban development, particularly in the areas of drainage systems, stormwater harvesting and urban water bodies.

She highlights the linkages between various dimensions of urban planning and development, with urban water management. She highlights key points and structural and non-structural recommendations for improving the urban water regime in City of Johannesburg.