Concerned organisations and citizens, business leaders, homeowners, scientists, design shapers, among others, will be taking part in a glocal (global + local) hackathon on Saturday and Sunday February 24 and 25 at the Cape Town Science Centre in Observatory.
In addition to the hackathon, the two-day event will consist of a variety of activities, all with a focus on creating awareness and the sharing of ideas to provide solutions to the current water stresses facing Cape Town, immediately, and into the future.
Broadly defined, hacking is creative problem solving (and does not have to involve technology). A hackathon is any event of any duration where people come together to solve problems. Participants typically form groups of about two to five individuals, and dive into problems – in this case problems around the current water crisis Cape Town is experiencing.
The participants will engage in a facilitated process, with input from specialists, to explore, ideate, hack and develop solutions. The ideas generated will contribute to effective solutions to the Cape Town water crisis, ideas that will be shared with other water-stressed cities around the world.
The South African Renewable Energy Business Incubator (SAREBI) will judge the activities and then offer several valuable Master Incubation classes for water innovation to the technological projects with the best potential.
Visitors to this two-day event who do not specifically want to join the “hack” can attend any of the different activities taking place ranging from talks; exhibits – water technology, composting toilets and DIY; workshops – water saving, harvesting and grey water treatment, the 25-litre challenge; family-friendly kid’s activities, and community engagements with a panel of experts about Day Zero.
Speakers include well known water resource management specialist Anthony Turton, as well as Gunter Paul, who is an entrepreneur and author of The Blue Economy and has been called “The Steve Jobs of sustainability”. Both speakers will join a line-up of speakers at the opening of the hack on the Saturday, which starts at 10am.
The hackathon was initiated by Stop Reset Go and the Cape Town Science Centre with support from a global solidarity network including Open Source Circular Economy Days initiative, Envienta Open Source Everything initiative, Action Foresight, P2P Foundation, the Loomio Cosmo- Localization group, and Global Movement Summit.
To join the hack interested participants are asked to visit www.hackthewatercrisis.org
BLOB Stop Reset Go is a growing collective of global change agents who empower citizens, entrepreneurs, activist, communities, and distribute initiatives to globally collaborate on developing solutions to challenges facing humanity. Stop Reset Go is also a simple 3 step transformation process:
1. Stop – recognise and stop harmful actions
2. Reset – propose and test alternative solutions
3. Go – implement and scale the solution
To learn more, log on to www.stopresetgo.org
