The Challenge of Water Security in Arid Economies

Webinar details

As the global population grows, the world is increasingly constrained by water stress. In arid economies this poses a unique set of challenges that require the ability to integrate different skills into high impact teams. In the case of Australia, a major contributor to the economy is mining. This suggests that growing demands will be made on the Social License to Operate, which will directly impact the investor confidence needed to sustain economic growth.

This webinar provides insight into a conceptual model of water as a changing risk over time. It defines threshold events typically associated with transition from one phase of development to another. Central to this is the need to deal with the cumulative impact of past engineering interventions, which introduces the notion of non-linearity into the process. It also proposes a new paradigm capable of integrating a broader range of skill sets into technical teams by aligning their output with strategic interests such as investment risk.

• The webinar will be recorded and will be sent out to registered attendees afterwards.
• A certificate of attendance will be provided to attendees who request one near the end of the live webinar session.
• Please note: the time stated on this event is in UTC. You will need to convert this to your own time zone.

Key takeaways from this webinar

• Understanding what water security means for arid economies.
• Learning how to manage aridity from an engineering perspective.
• Linking these activities to the capacity for economic growth despite growing water constraints.

Related courses

This webinar/topic is multidisciplinary and relates to the following schools of engineering:

• Civil Engineering
• Industrial Automation, Instrumentation and Process Control
• Data Comms & Industrial IT

About the presenter

Dr. Anthony Turton, EIT lecturer and Head of Strategy Nexus Resilience

Dr. Anthony Turton completed his PhD on water as a national security risk, focusing on contested shared rivers. His work was classified at the time and involved professional engagement with various governments worldwide where water was a national security issue. He later transitioned from the classified environment and became a Fellow at the CSIR. In that role, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Research Advisory Panel (RAP), the highest organ in the CSIR responsible for the parliamentary grant allocation to the national water strategy. Part of his core responsibility at the CSIR was serving as a media spokesperson for water, which significantly raised his profile. He also served as Deputy Governor on the World Water Council and continues to work as an editor for their official journal, Water Policy. He was the Executive Director of the International Water Resource Association (IWRA) and later became Deputy President. He also became a founding member of the Universities Partnership for Transboundary Water. In these roles, he gained considerable experience working in transdisciplinary teams that included process engineers, mining engineers, environmental scientists, and geohydrologists.

After leaving the CSIR, Dr. Turton was appointed as a Professor at the Center for Environmental Management at the University of the Free State. He began working on water as a risk and opportunity for mining companies. In that role, he was appointed as an advisor to the Chairman of the Board and/or CEO of two Australian-listed mining companies operating in South Africa. One was a gold tailing recovery process, and the other was a major open-cast metallurgical coal mining operation. He has worked with various governments in an advisory role, including those of the Nile, Mekong, Helmand, and Jordan Rivers. On the commercial side, he has worked as a consultant to the financial services industry, including institutional investment fund managers, focusing on water as a risk to their portfolios. One of his last professional assignments before immigrating was as an advisor to various litigators involving the collapse of water and sewage services in South Africa. His work in Australia has included serving as an external reviewer for Vic Water in Melbourne and the Burdekin River Forum in Queensland.