The Federation for a Sustainable Environment has handed over a petition to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) demanding the reinstatement of water research scientist Dr. Anthony Turton [1].

The former CSIR water researcher was suspended after having written a paper [2] for the CSIR's Science Real and Relevant conference in Pretoria in November 2008. In this paper both the council and the government were criticised for failing to address the impending water crisis in South Africa. Even though CSIR stressed that Turton was not suspended for his views but for bringing the council into direpute, the suspension has been widely interpreted as an effort to silence him.

[1] Dr. Anthony Turton

[2] Read Turton’s paper “Three Strategic Water Quality Challenges that Decision-Makers Need to Know About and How the CSIR Should Respond” here.

Sources: Sharon Davis and Aisling Irwin, SciDev.Net, 05 Dec 2008 ; Jacques Breytenbach, Pretoria News / Independent Online, 10 Dec 2008 ; Arthi Sanpath, Daily News / Independent Online, 10 Dec 2008

Tags: africa, governance, water quality, water resources management