The Water Game Changers Day​

Future Africa, University of Pretoria

July 28, 2025

 

A day full of inspiration that featured prominent representatives from Denmark, Mexico, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the University of Pretoria, Academia and the Organized Civil Society. It celebrated exemplary nature-based experiences such as wetland restoration, rainwater harvesting and water infiltration. The event included three panels of intergenerational dialogue on the right to water and sanitation, the right to nature and the gender dimension of water; water and sustainable development; and nature-based ecotechnologies, indigenous knowledge and innovation, as well as a hybrid training session by the Mexican Institute of Water Technologies (IMTA) and the launch of the 'Water Game Changers Award'. The event followed up on the November 2024 Human Rights Forum panel that addressed the impacts of El Niño and climate change on the right to food in Southern Africa. In the dialogue powerful transformative experiences emerged. The Moderator-Sherpa of the day, Arch Graham A. Young, suggested three practical steps or lines of work for the future in South Africa: prioritizing the repair of water leaks, decentralizing water design through ecotechnologies (such as rainwater harvesting) and educating the public about water conservation, in light of the right to water and sanitation, the gender dimension of water and sustainable development. The greatest learning: the centrality of community participation in any effort, as well as of the concept of sustainability of life, which refers to the need to place the maintenance and regeneration of life - human and non-human - at the centre of political, economic and social systems; eco-technologies that are not only environmentally sound, but also socially just, inclusive and rights-based; and a profound reflection on the historic transformations that have brought us to the current situation.