Past event

Case 1: Designing a Digital Water Technical School

Case owner: Rand Water 

South Africa’s water sector is rapidly adopting digital technologies such as SCADA, smart sensors, automation, and data analytics to improve operational performance. How could technical education evolve at the same pace? Rand Water aims to develop a ‘National Digital Water Technical School’ that combines technical expertise with digital competencies through innovative curricula and partnerships. The model should be scalable, financially viable, inclusive, and aligned with national qualification frameworks while addressing both urban and rural water challenges, to strengthen workforce capacity. The team is challenged to develop a scalable National Digital Water Technical School, that prepares industry-ready professionals for a digitally enabled water sector.

Case 2: Social contract to address Non-Revenue Water Challenges

Case owner: Water Research Commission

Close to half of the water supplied by municipalities is lost through leaks, theft, inaccurate metering, or poor system management (DWS No Drop Reports). This challenge calls on young innovators to explore how we can unlock a stronger social contract between government, citizens and private sector to turn around non-revenue water challenges. The goal is to identify the most powerful lever that will unlock a change in the way NRW is being managed, and design a financially viable and sustainable intervention that will support the turn-around of NRW.

Case 3: Designing an Integrated Artificial Wetland

Case owner: Dpt of Water and Sanitation

Roodeplaat Dam is a critical water resource for the city of Pretoria, but has long been affected by eutrophication, frequent cyanobacterial blooms, and excessive nutrient loading from upstream wastewater discharges. On the western shore of the reservoir, the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) operates the Roodeplaat Water Training Centre and the Resource Quality Information Services (RQIS) laboratories. Wastewater generated at these facilities is only partially treated, with treatment performance declining significantly during peak flow conditions. How can DWS design and integrate an artificial wetland, as a Nature Based Solution to protect this strategic water resource, and demonstrate this as a best practice for water stewardship?

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Pitch & Poster – winning team!

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Case 4: Balancing the Scale: Designing Water Treatment with Affordable Solutions

Case owner: uMngeni-uThukela Water

uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW) faces a severe challenge within the Albert Falls-Nagle-Durban Heights System (uMngeni River), which has experienced intense, ongoing algal blooms since mid-2024 due to widespread nutrient enrichment. Reversing this systemic eutrophication would require a strategic shift to complex quality management. To comply with the new SANS 241:2025 standards and the national Blue Drop audits, UUW must integrate advanced treatment technologies across all abstracting waterworks. How to balance the required capital and operational expenditure (such as surging chemical demands) with realistic funding models? This case challenges participants to design an innovative roadmap balancing high-tech infrastructure retrofits with affordable solutions, resulting in lifelong-safe water access in support of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.

Case 5: The Value of Water Footprint Accounting for South African Farmers and Companies

Case owner: Water Footprint Implementation (WFI) and Blue North Sustainability

South Africa’s farmers and businesses face growing water risk, yet the value of water footprint accounting and reporting remains unclear to those who would need to act on it. Water Footprint Implementation and Blue North Sustainability have deep experience in South African agriculture to measure water footprints and support sustainability, but tangible benefits for individual farmers and decision-makers is still uncertain. This case invites participants to move beyond the technical methodology, and investigate the real-world incentives, barriers, and business logic that would make water footprint accounting genuinely useful – not just measurable – for South African farmers and companies.

Pitch & Poster

Pitch & Poster