Wits launches research centre to solve South Africa’s water challenges

Wits launches research centre to solve South Africa's water challenges

18 September 2025 - Wits University

Wits:H2O is a research grouping that brings together government, business, academia, and civil society to bring real-world solutions to water challenges.

South Africa's water emergency is deepening, with more frequent regional 'Day Zero' type events occurring, prolonged local supply failures in metros and smaller municipalities and collapsing infrastructure leaving millions vulnerable.

While the access to water is a natural and basic human right, water crises like we see in South Africa today are human-made: human action can solve them. Today, the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, launched its flagship water research centre, Wits:H₂O in response to these water crises.

Previously known as Centre in Water Research and Development (CIWaRD), Wits:H₂O is a working research grouping that brings together government, business, academia, and civil society to bring real-world solutions to water challenges in South Africa and across the African continent. The Centre is led by Professor Craig Sheridan, Claude Leon Foundation Chair in Water Research at Wits, supported by Professor Heidi Richards from the Wits School of Chemistry with the support of a large network of interdisciplinary researchers.

"We, as South Africans located within the African continent, are facing a water crisis. From regional 'Day Zero' type events to ongoing local water supply failures, every person is impacted. Wits:H₂O represents our approach to thinking about water and engaging meaningfully with this crisis," says Sheridan.

Wits:H₂O is an interdisciplinary research initiative that focuses on systemic thought to Africa's water challenges. The network of researchers at Wits University includes more than 60 scholars and researchers from the fields of science, engineering, health sciences, humanities, commerce, law and education, as well as from other research institutes based at Wits University. The centre also collaborates with various other organisations locally and globally, including government, business and civil society, to help safeguard Africa's most critical resource, with the purpose of combining the best thinking globally to consider our water challenges.

"South Africa is facing a significant skills gap in the water sector," says Sheridan. "Decades of underinvestment in training and capacity building have left us with too few qualified engineers, hydrologists, water managers and sanitation experts. Wits:H₂O aims not just to conduct research, but to rebuild this essential skills base, while also to training and mentoring the next generation of professionals who will face the future of the increasing water challenges of our country and continent."

South Africa is currently in the midst of a systemic water crisis as a result of the convergence of causal factors such as ageing infrastructure, poor governance and pollution with an increasing population and demand. Communities across the country face daily water disruptions, such as faltering water treatment plants; escalating water losses and mine drainage and untreated wastewater contaminating rivers and aquifers. Climate change compounds these challenges, with longer droughts and more extreme rainfall events threatening food production, rural and urban water security and public health. Projections suggest that by mid-century, water deficits could become the norm unless innovative, integrated solutions are urgently adopted. Launched at the Wits Anglo American Digital Dome on Wednesday, 17 September, the centre brought together prominent stakeholders in the South African water sector, in order to kickstart the conversation on solving the country's water challenges.

"Wits:H₂O's vision is to go beyond thinking about solutions, to think about how the solutions impact society, and to assist society in responding to our future challenges as they relate to the increasing scarcity of water resources. Also, we hope to inform, inspire and partner with stakeholders across the world in providing sustainable solutions for our continent."