WISA

Over the last few years WISA was transforming WISA from what the Americans would call a "Mom and Pop shop" to an organisation run on more professional lines. It started with the decision to employ a full time CEO and grew from there. Office structures were established, the database was upgraded, the web page was re-designed to offer more facilities to the members, an official language policy and external relations policy adopted, Council and Board meetings were not only reduced in number but streamlined with new functional agendas, a dedicated server bought to serve the office, an extensive e-mail service established, etc. Many of these changes are not even large enough to attract attention on their own, but collectively these changes to a certain extent revolutionised WISA, not only in the way that it fulfils its functions, but also in its functions, its acceptability, its demographic profile, its structure, and most importantly the approach to its members. It will be fair to say that WISA moved from an organisation asking what its members can do for it, to one that asks what it can do for its members.

A further essential requirement would be that somehow the corps of volunteers actively involved with WISA should be expanded. WISA is a volunteer driven association and it is essential that rather than overloading the minority of volunteers, that more members are inspired to contribute to their association, and therefore reducing the workload of their fellow members. Should this not happen we will find fewer and fewer people volunteering which ultimately will lead to the demise of the association.

Just prior to the World Summit on Sustainable Development the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry appointed WISA to arrange a Summit for relevant Ministers of Cabinet from Africa to develop and articulate a policy on Sanitation that could be jointly presented at the Summit as one of the pillars. Though at extremely short notice for an event of this magnitude WISA managed to organise a success-ful event that obtained the outcome desired by the contracting party.

From early in 2002 a Working Group of WISA was actively involved with assisting the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry to develop input for the South African platform at the WSSD. During the latter half of 2002 this Working Group of WISA organised two extremely successful workshops where specialists from a diversity of disciplines and organisations contributed inputs, which would later be placed on the WISA web site for peer review, and further inputs before being refined at a final workshop for presentation to the Department. It deserves mention that this process was handled by WISA at no cost as a symbolic contribution from the professionals in the water sector who are members of WISA. WISA was also honoured by being the only water association on a global scale that achieved status as observers to the WSSD officially sanctioned by the United Nations.

As is customary this took place during a conference year. The Stander Lecture this year was delivered by Prof At Pretorius. Liza Cave from the CSIR in Stellenbosch and Graham Hewitt from the University of Natal were the selected two young researchers who presented papers.

The Stander lectures are an academic highlight and presti-gious event that has come to be recognised as an important milestone to strive for amongst academics and practitioners in the South African water sector.

While WISA has made provision for the paying of income tax after the changes in the law governing Section 21 companies, it also applied for recognition as a Non-profit Organisation. This recognition was obtained at the end of 2002 and underlines the fact that WISA remains an association not for gain should it in future decide to abandon registration as a Section 21 company due to the extra administrative encumbrances of operating under the strictures of the laws governing registered companies as well as the fact that it provides no tax advantages as it did in the past. This change in status is also reflected in the fact that WISA has succeeded in being recognised as a non-profit organisation by the registrar of domains for the internet in South Africa and as such can legitimately use the appellation of “.org” as a suffix for its web page as well as its e-mail. This ".org" domain is internationally recognised as denoting a non-profit organisation.

The data base has been upgraded to create an interlinking with the accounting program and a dedicated computer assigned as server while a number of other data base functions were customised. This created a smoother workflow and faster generating times for reports that resulted in a better service and enabled the mailing of subscription invitations early in January. A program has also been completed as far as software is concerned and the operating systems programs used in the office are now all similar. The backlog of promotions to fellow status was completed and a start was made to update the expertise fields of all members. This upgrading also provided the capability to streamline the e-mailing of notices to members and for the first time more than a thousand members can now be reached by e-mail in a matter of less than an hour.

A special dispensation in subscription rates was also approved to accommodate retired members who have been members of WISA for more than 15 years. WISA is still contracted to provide secretariat services to VAALCO and the IWA-SA.

During the course of this reporting period the new "Handbook for the Operation of Wastewater Treatment Works" was published, followed by the publishing of the same handbook on CD in Adobe Acrobat format. The initial print was sponsored by ERWAT, one of our Patron Members, with the proceeds going to the Bursary Fund. This publication is also being distributed in Australia by their equivalent of WISA and has proved so popular in South Africa that we are already doing a third re-print.

During the course of this year the publishers of Water, Sewage&Effluent, informed us that they plan to stop the free distribution of this publication to WISA members. As WISA is financially not in a position to pay subscriptions on behalf of its members this decision came as a severe blow. Through negotiations WISA was able to extend free distribution till the end of 2003. We are busy with some more negotiations that may secure free distribution of this publication over a longer period of time. In the mean time a project is underway to get members to confirm in writing their wish to receive this publication free of charge.

It remains the policy of WISA to only use the accumulated interest from the Bursary Fund to sponsor students. Due to the rapid rise in tuition costs at tertiary institutions this has limited the number of students to three despite the growth of the Bursary Fund. This year however we were able to sponsor four students rather than the usual three - details of which are available on the WISA web site - due to the fact that one students’ expenses was very reasonable.

The quality of the applications received, their geographic spread, and the diversity of subject areas, again impressed the selection panel. Selections are made purely and solely on merit and are not influenced by creed, race, gender, or any other artifice. A applicant selected as a WISA bursar can rightfully be proud that they have convinced the selection panel that they deserve to be a WISA bursar.

Mr Mlungisi Jabulani Ngema, BSc in Hydrology and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal

WISA played an initiating role in this competition that is run by DWAF and also sits on the Steering Committee. WISA is proud that two member were recipients of Awards this year. In the category for Research (under 35 years), Dr Jackie Barclay won, and in the Management category Renee van Hoeve, Chairperson of the Industrial Water Division, won. Our heartiest WISA congratulations to these two members.

Due to the change that took place to create Presidential terms of equal duration there was no sitting of this committee during this year as there were two sittings last year. The Council appointed Ms Noeline Basson as the Convenor of this committee. This is apt as Ms Basson was the first woman to become a Senior Fellow.

This year the Board decided to extend invitations to ESKOM and Johannesburg Water, both of whom accepted this honour. WISA looks forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with them.

One of the first Patron Members of WISA, Rand Water, is celebrating their centennial year in 2003. WISA takes this opportunity to congratulate them on being in the business of potable water supply for a century and to laud Rand Water for the socially and environmentally sensitive manner in which they operate. We are proud to be associated with them.

During the course of this year the Board of WISA has approved the creation of an award to Branches and Divisions, as well as to individuals who have contributed to WISA in some or other outstanding manner. This award, known as the "Aqua Vita Est" (Water Is Life) award mirrors the logo on the WISA Coat of Arms. It will be bestowed on any number of individuals in a year, or one Branch or Division, which in the opinion of their peers have contributed the most to WISA. The award is unique in that there are no prescriptions regarding such contributions. It is meant to honour those individuals who steadfastly, and devoid of fanfare, toil to the benefit of WISA.

This award was created because the Board is of the opinion that the ultimate success of an organisation driven by volunteers rests not only upon those few who occupy positions of eminence, but on the "unknown soldiers" who ensure that things work.

The Mine Water Division has also announced an award for the best paper in the field of mining and related disciplines delivered at the Biennial Conference by a student. This is a substantial award of R7 500 and as such will surely be hotly contested.

This year was very active as far as the Divisions were concerned. As part of the continuing process of evaluating and focusing Divisions the respective Chairpersons of the Sludge and Anaerobic Processes Divisions agreed to combine the two into the Anaerobic Processes and Sludge Division.

Their new Chairpersons rejuvenated two Divisions that were fairly dormant. Dr Eustina Musvoto took the reins at Nutrient Removal that is now operating under the name of Nutrient Management after it was decided to broaden its field of interest while Renee van Hoeve took over at Industrial Water. In the rapidly evolving water sector it remains essential that the specialist Divisions should take stock from time to time to ensure that they are still covering the interests of all their members.

The key to the success of any Strategic Plan is the implementation thereof, as well as regular evaluations regarding its adherence to the original vision and meaningful adaptations as necessary. The outcome of this process would herald the "new era" previously referred to and serves as a sign of the continuing growth of WISA and the fact that it strives to adjust to changing circumstances by incorporating those into its field of activities and so retain relevance.

During the course of the year a questionnaire initiated this process in a preliminary move to assess the requirements and perceptions of WISA members. The input gathered from those responses reinforced the view that it was time to initiate a larger and more thorough re-evaluation of WISA and its role and functions.

Elections:

During the AGM (Company) in Durban Messers Jay Bhagwan and Koos Wilken were elected to the Board of Directors - Mr Bhagwan was elected as 2^nd Vice-president. His term will commence in May 2004.

At the Council meeting in February 2003 Dr Marlene van der Merwe-Botha, who is already a Member of the Board, was elected as 2^nd Vice-president for the term that commences in May 2005.

The membership still continues to grow as it did over the last few years. The table provides an overview over membership growth per membership category since 1990. Especially pleasing is the increase in the categories where one usually expects to find younger members. This bodes well for the continued viability and future of WISA.

I am extremely fortunate in the sense that every year that passed during my tenure at WISA has brought new challenges and expansion into areas that were not previously sufficiently accented. As you can see from this report, this year was no exception. It is, however hard one might try, not possible to achieve much without support and assistance.

WISA is fortunate to have dedicated members serving its interests on both the Board as well as the Council. Furthermore the dedication of its Chairpersons at Branch and Divisional level sometimes humbles one when realising that they fulfil these tasks as volunteers additional to their daily work with an enthusiasm and commitment that is not often seen. While it is unfair to single out individuals in a multitude of exceptional people it would be amiss not to thank Dave Nozaic, Nigel Walker and Tony Bailey and the KwaZulu-Natal volunteers for their work in making WISA 2002 the success that it was. Similarly the stalwart work done by Herman Wiechers regarding the preparatory work with the WSSD cannot remain un-praised. But as always, it is you, the dedicated individual member of WISA that is on an almost daily basis furthering the aims and mission of WISA, that makes it all possible. It is an honour to be associated with you.