CPUT Researcher Wins Prestigious Water Science Award 2024

CPUT Researcher Wins Prestigious Water Science Award 2024

VICTOR: Dr Bongani Ncube (centre), a researcher at the Centre for Water and Sanitation Research, is congratulated by Water Research Commission (WRC) CEO, Dhesigen Naidoo and WRC Board member, Dr Ntombifuthi Nala, after winning in the commission’s Knowledge Tree AwardsVICTOR: Dr Bongani Ncube (centre), a researcher at the Centre for Water and Sanitation Research, is congratulated by Water Research Commission (WRC) CEO, Dhesigen Naidoo and WRC Board member, Dr Ntombifuthi Nala, after winning in the commission’s Knowledge Tree Awards

Dr Bongani Ncube, a researcher at the Centre for Water and Sanitation Research, has recently scooped a 2024 Water Research Commission (WRC) Knowledge Tree Award.
Ncube won the award in the ‘Empowerment of Communities’ Category in recognition of her research projects which focus on smallholder farmers in the Western Cape.
“I feel honoured and privileged to receive such an award. This award means a lot to me personally, the Research Unit and CPUT,” she says.
“It gives me great pleasure that my team have made a difference in the lives of the farmers in such a short period of time. The research has built capacity through MSc students and collaboration with the Breede-Gouritz Catchment Agency.”
The awards celebrate men and women who make a major impact in pursuing excellence in the water science domain, and were presented during the third biennial WRC symposium held recently in Ekurhuleni under the theme ‘Adaptation to the new normal’.
Ncube recently completed a project that saw farmers and institutions collaborating to find solutions in accessing water and agriculture knowledge. She previously documented indigenous knowledge strategies for drought management in another project in the same province.
She is grateful to the institutions involved in her research work, the farmers and the team of students who work with her.
The research also further strengthened relations between CPUT and the Breede-Gouritz Catchment Management Agency, who have since 2013 been collaborating through a Memorandum of Agreement with the University of Western Cape.