To overcome the water crisis in South Africa, IFAT Africa and the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA) will launch a cooperation venture as of June 24, 2018. The aim of the cooperation is to forge ahead with drinking water production, water supply and wastewater treatment in the drought-plagued country by means of professional know-how and appropriate technologies. With this in mind, the following two strong partners will be joining forces: IFAT Africa, the leading trade show for environmental technologies in sub-Saharan Africa, and WISA, the biggest water and wastewater board in South Africa with a conference of its own.
For Stefan Rummel, Managing Director of Messe München, bundling competences is the main idea underlying the cooperation between IFAT Africa and the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA): “We must intertwine technologies and expert knowledge more closely with each other in order to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable supply of water as a vital resource also in southern Africa. That is precisely what we want to achieve with our cooperation.”

Pushing the transfer of knowledge and technology actively ahead

IFAT Africa will already act as an official partner of the WISA Conference in Cape Town from June 24 to 27, 2018. In future, the biggest specialist conference for the South African water sector will profit from the comprehensive industry network of Messe München: IFAT Africa is one out of five subsidiary events of IFAT in Munich, the world’s largest and leading trade show for water, sewage, waste and raw materials management. By their cooperation, the organizers would like to promote the transfer of international know-how and professional exchange.

By contrast, the transfer of technology takes center-stage at IFAT Africa. Besides waste and recycling solutions, this encompasses solutions for the desalinization of sea water, for groundwater production or sewage treatment. At the next edition, to be held in Johannesburg from July 9 to 11, 2019, the Water Institute will strengthen the trade show’s professional supporting program by organizing specialist lectures or workshops on education and further training for municipal water and sewage experts. The trade show for environmental technologies and the WISA Congress will each take place biennially – on an annually rotating basis.

Dr. Lester Goldman, Chief Executive Officer of the Water Institute of Southern Africa: “WISA is very pleased to be partnering with IFAT Africa. IFAT Africa promises to become the leading expo of its type in Africa with large-scale benefits - globally and locally. Our partnership shows of what can be achieved through proactive collaboration.”

Further information on IFAT Africa is available under www.ifat-africa.com, more about WISA under http://wisa.org.za/.