Guest Speaker: Dr Zahid Badroodien
Member of the Mayoral Committee Water and Sanitation – City of Cape Town | Medical Doctor | Public Health Advocate I City of Cape Town, Western Cape.
It was a privilege to welcome Dr Zahid as our guest speaker last Friday. Spiro shared that Dr Zahid was a graduate of Stellenbosch University, holds a medical degree (MBChB), a Masters in Public Health from the University of Edinburgh as well as a certificate in Challenges in Global Health’ from Utrecht University. Dr Zahid, serves as the political principal of the Water and Sanitation Directorate (2nd term), focusing on restoring dignity in communities by reducing sewer overflows especially in vulnerable areas. Increasing infrastructure investment and maintenance, ensures continued excellence of the quality of our water.
Dr Zahid took us on a journey from the time The City of Cape Town successfully averted and bounced back from a three-year drought – the worst on record. The relationship with residents across the city strengthened significantly. “Together we moved with a unified sense of purpose to avoid Day Zero. We now appreciate not only its value but its important role in our growing city”. (See pics below)
“Now, as we pursue our objective of becoming a Water Sensitive City by 2040, our focus must transition to not only protecting our water sources and using this precious resource responsibly; but making sure residents also have access to dignified sanitation services and improved water quality standards in water bodies and channels across the city.”
The foresight of the CoCT to implement this R120 billion, 10-year water and sanitation infrastructure project (spanning roughly 2024–2035), aimed at building resilience and providing 300 million litres of new, non-surface water daily is lauded. Diversifying water sources via aquifer extraction, desalination, and water reuse, alongside massive pipe replacements and wastewater treatment upgrades has positioned our City as a leader in its planning a strategy. (A copy of the presentation is available on request.)
Nadene thanked Dr Zahid for his informative presentation and for braving the early morning traffic to address the club! (Bosun Piet in the background)
