About Us
Since its inception in 1994, the Centre for Water and Wastewater Technology has developed into a Centre of excellence, with the research thrust focusing on the development of suitable technology for the remediation of domestic and industrial waste and, the provision of potable quality water to the community.
The centre selects and and executes research projects in close consultation with industrial partners. The projects are aimed at helping the industries maintain acceptable levels of effluent discharges, thus reducing negative environmental impact and commercialization of products generated from waste streams. One of the major advantages and strengths in the Centre is the development of essential skills through student training, to satisfy the much needed human resource needs of the water sector (including industry) in South Africa. A large proportion of these students are from previously disadvantaged communities.
Governance
The management team currently comprises of one Director (Prof. F. Bux) and four project leaders who manage the individual projects. The Centre is administered by an admin assistant (Miss. D. Naidoo) and overseen by Prof. Bux. Focus of research at the Centre is targeted towards satisfying the water and wastewater needs of industry and the community in the region and South Africa. In the process postgraduate students are trained and developed to satisfy the water and wastewater human resource needs of industry in general. Staff members are also trained by attending workshops and courses and by international visits to labs of collaborating partners. The director and project leaders serve to govern the Centre and have regular progress report meetings to assess project performance. On a regular basis external experts from industry sit in on the appraisal meetings. By this way many of the objectives of the Centre are achieved. Research outputs by way of publications and international conference presentations are encouraged and are a regular occurrence, with Masters and Doctoral students presenting their research results at international conferences. This also facilitates research at the Centre to be appraised by international experts. Funds are controlled and administered by the Director in conjunction with other project leaders and subjected to satisfying institutional funding policies.