Code of Conduct

The CS4Water Conference brings together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, educators, community members, and citizen scientists from around the world. We want everyone to feel welcome, safe, and able to take part fully.

This code applies to everyone involved in the conference: delegates, speakers, organisers, sponsors, exhibitors, and volunteers. It covers the venue, field excursions, the networking dinner, and conference online spaces such as the Dryfta platform and app.

What we ask of everyone

• Treat everyone with respect and courtesy, whatever their background, role, or experience.
• Value different kinds of knowledge. Community, local, traditional, and academic knowledge all belong in the conversation.
• Listen generously, share the floor, and keep to time so that others can speak.
• Ask before you photograph or record someone and respect their answer.
• Credit other people’s work and ideas and ask before sharing someone’s unpublished data or slides.
• Look out for one another, including on excursions and when travelling to and from events.

Behaviour that crosses the line

Harassment, discrimination, and intimidation have no place at the conference, in person or online. This includes offensive or demeaning comments, unwelcome physical contact or sexual attention, deliberate disruption of sessions, stalking, and sharing someone’s personal information without their consent.

Raising a concern

If something makes you or someone else feel unsafe or uncomfortable, please tell us. You can speak to any Conference Organising Committee (COC) member on site, or to the registration desk, or email info@cs4water.net.

We will treat every report seriously and confidentially, sharing it only with those who need to know in order to act. In an emergency, call 112 from a mobile phone or the South African Police Service on 10111.

What happens next

The organising team will listen, respond promptly, and take action proportionate to what happened. Working with venue staff, we reserve the right to ask anyone who breaches this code of conduct to leave the conference without a refund and, where needed, to involve venue security or the police.

Thank you for helping to make the CS4Water Conference 2027 a welcoming space for everyone.