Anthony Turton - water,environment,green,scientist,water resource management,speaker,consultant

I was given the Habitat Council Award on 10 October 2009 in recognition of the work I have done on raising public awareness on water security. To download the citation click here. The text of my acceptance speech is availbale on My Scientific Papers page under the heading of Keynote Lectures.

I am a Director of TouchStone Resources (Pty) Ltd. This is a Cleantech company, based on a Social Entrepreneurship model, designed to enable development to take place in southern Africa in the face of water and energy constraints, by negotiating a new Social Contract. We intend to list this company on the London Stock Exchange and we are focusing on New Water and New Energy, consistent with my views on the Soft Path (to find out more click here). For more information please visit the TouchStone Resources website by clicking here and to find out more about Cleantech click here and here and here and here.

I was elected Vice President of the International Water Resource Association (IWRA) to serve for the period 2010 - 2012, having served on the previous Board as an Executive Director. To access their website click here and for a full list of the current Board click here.

I am a Professor in the Centre for Environmental Management at the University of Free State. This university continues to impress me with its commitment to research and higher education; and the Center amazes me because of the sheer number of quality post-graduate students it turns out each year from across the entire African continent. To know more about this please click here.

I am a Trustee in a project called Reclaim Camissa (see website), which seeks to rehabilitate the very first river that was ever used to sustain European settlement in the 1650's. This small river defined the later existence of the city of Cape Town and it also generated the first water law in South Africa. The story of Camissa is one of modernity versus traditionalism and priviledge versus servitude, but it can also be one of reflexivity as we become aware of the unintended consequences of our actions and collectively do something to reverse these processes. How we decide to close the loop that this project gives us will tell us whether we collectively choose to use water to deepen our democracy and create a more just society, or whether we choose to continue abusing this resource, ultimately to our own peril as a species. For more information about this flagship project click here and here.

I was the Keynote Speaker at the 2nd Annual Symposium of the Research Niche for the Cultural Dynamics of Water held at the North-West University on 20 November 2009. The theme was What Water Problem? Multidimensional Perspectives on Critical Issues in the Upper Vaal Catchment. The PowerPoint presentation is available on My Scientific Papers page under the heading of Keynote Lectures.

I was a keynote speaker and I also facilitated a number of panel discussions at the Water Investment World conference that was held at the Sandton Convention Centre from 2 - 6 November 2009. To download a PDF of the program click here, to visit the organizers website click here. Please feel free to contact the organizers for a reference on my performance as both a facilitator and a speaker. The actual presentation is available on My Scientific Publications Page under the heading of Keynote Lectures.

In South Africa we have a rigorous peer-review rating system for scientists run by the National Research Foundation (NRF), in terms of which I am a B-rated researcher. This means that my work is Internationally Acclaimed. To verify this, and to compare me with other rated researchers, please visit the NRF website by clicking here:

I serve on the Editorial Board of a new journal called Water Alternatives where we encourage out of the box thinking in our quest for solutions to the complex problems we currently face in the international water sector. To access the Water Alternatives home page please click here:

I serve the World Water Council in the role of Editor (Africa) of their official journal Water Policy under Dr. Jerome Delli-Pricscoli (Editor in Chief) from the US Army Corps of Engineers. I invite submissions from any serious scholar with an interest in making the management of the African water sector more robust by means of policy strengthening. To access the Water Policy portal click here:

I serve the International Water Resource Association (IWRA) in the role of Editor of their official journal Water International under Prof. James Nickum (Editor in Chief) from the Asian Water and Resources Institute in Japan. I invite submissions from any serious scholar with an interest in improving the management of Transboundary Waters. To access the IWRA portal click here:

I am involved in an advisory capacity with a number of NGO's that I consider to be doing important work by giving my professional time on a Pro Bono basis. However, I am not necessarily a member of these NGO's. My role is to build bridges across boundaries between interest groups with a view to gaining consensus about a shared vision for the future. This is consistent with my professional focus on Transboundary Waters where "transboundary" is defined as "that set of circumstances that arise when the natural flow of water crosses 'artificial' boundaries such as between jurisdictions, interest groups, sectors or any other man-made groupings". Some of these NGO's are:

This interview was conducted by Hendrik Martin at the SABC Radio Sonder Grense (Radio Without Borders) in honour of Eleanor Ostrom, the 2009 Nobel Laureate for Economics. I used some of Ostrom's work to inform my own thinking about the management of transboundary rivers, which is the reason the SABC asked me to do the interview. My doctorate linked the work of a number of great thinkers, of which Eleanor Ostrom is but one, into one coherent approach to the management of water that is shared between different sovereign entities. To access the podcast click here.

I am involved with the production of a TV documentary program called Running Dry - South Africa. This has grown out of my earlier involvement in the original Running Dry program where Jim Thebaut was the Producer and Jane Seymour did the narration. For access to the Running Dry - South Africa website please click here. To download a PDF file please click here. To access the promotional video please click here and here.

Some of the rough cuts from the original Running Dry that did not make it into the final program are available here. These give an insight into my professional thinking about specific water and development-related problems. The interviews are being conducted by Jim Thebaut the producer of Running Dry:

This radio talk show interview by David Gleason on the Classic FM program called State of the Nation deals with Geothermal Energy and involves David Gadd-Claxton (CEO of TouchStone Resources) and Peter Lukey (Chief Director, Air Quality at DWAE). To download the podcast please click here:

This was then followed by a second talk show with David Gleason. In this case the other guest was Dr. David Phillips with whom I am closely associated by virtue of our joint work into Benefit-Sharing in Transboundary River Basins. These files are extracts of that second interview:

I have been deeply involved with the World Water Council (http://www.worldwatercouncil.org), having served as a Deputy Governor and having been instrumental in getting South Africa short listed as one of three potential host countries for the 6th World Water Forum. During the preparation for the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, I was involved in the production of a TV documentary called Pumping Pressure. This documentary gives some insight into the impact that gold mining has had on the national water resources.

At about the same time as the run-up to the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto, I was involved in a TV documentary film on the Okavango River and the Jordan River called Boiling Point, which is available here:

As a scientist I have migrated from a pure research environment to an applied research environment, specifically with respect to the private sector as an element of the solution. In this regard I am trying to understand the evolving South African Water Crisis as a sub-set of the emerging Global Water Crisis. For those interested in understanding business opportunities associated with water please follow this link:

http://www.investmentu.com/research/water.pdf

As a Veteran I was invited to participate in the Missing Voices Oral History Project being run by Wits University, where I donated a number of hours of taped interview available in MP3 format.