Assignment Task
1. Course aims/objectives
This course has been designed to equip the next generation of critical thinkers to consider Africa’s increasingly complex water challenges. It will challenge participants to consider water in new ways, develop the tools to do so, and equip them with the skills to apply their learnings in different contexts. This course adopts an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary (IDTD) approach to examine the complexity of current water crises, trends, and conditions, with specific examples from the African continent. While considering water demand, supply, and treatment, it addresses the need to derive maximum benefit from water resources while incurring minimum burden and the need to secure alternative water sources (‘new taps’) in a Water Sensitive
context.
2. Assignments
i) Assignment based on field trip/data skills exercise
The Water Hub is a smart water center connecting people, knowledge and nature with the vision of becoming an innovative research and knowledge-sharing centre that is capable of using natural and unconventional systems to clean and treat water and recover resources from contaminated water. It takes its inspiration from examples found elsewhere in the world such as John Todd Ecological Design. The African challenge is to do things differently; for example, by testing appropriate designs that will help to build functionality and efficiencies into unconventional infrastructure and without the need for non-renewable energy and chemical inputs.
The task for this assignment is to write a short report (limited to 1500 words) that incorporates data, analysis and discussion on use of large scale biofiltration cells to treat contaminated water from an informal settlement. This assignment must be uploaded onto the course website as a PDF file into the Assignments section.
ii) Summative review paper
Complete a structured summary of the relevant literature which you are able to source to build the argument towards Sustainable Water Management. You must provide a clear outline of the structure of this summary to show how you framed your thinking. This assignment must be uploaded onto the course website as a PDF file into the Assignments section by 09h00 on Friday, 09 August 2024.
Hand-in times are fixed, and the portal will reject any submission after the prescribed cut-off time. Extensions will only be permitted if:
- Your progress has been demonstrably impacted by an unexpected event out of your control;
- You make your request for extension immediately via email the moment it becomes apparent that the event has the potential to prevent you from submitting on time and definitely prior to the submission time; and
- You provide appropriate evidence in support of your request for an extension.