On the 7th of April, 2015, NMMU George hosted a public lecture by Adjunct Professor Dirk Roux of the SRU, titled: Freshwater: Most precious natural resource, critically threatened, yet so difficult to protect to explore the challenges and opportunities in freshwater conservation.
The lecture was attended by over 80 people, including representatives from WESSA, SANParks, SCLI, CapeNature and NMMU, including George Campus Principal Professor Quinton Johnson and the Acting Executive Dean of the Faculty of Science from Port Elizabeth, Prof Cedric McCleland.
The lecture sparked debate around topics such as:
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The era of human domination: The Anthropocene
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Municipal buying and owning of water sources as means of protection
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Relationship between Agriculture and river health
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The need to revisit legislation regarding water pollution
Bianca Currie offered a succinct summation of the lecture, highlighting the fact that this needs to be approached as a global issue, with extensive stakeholder involvement. She also picked out Prof Roux’s theme of collaborative management, ending with saying: “It’s everybody’s business.”