Chris Swartz is a consulting water utilisation engineer in his consulting engineering firm Chris Swartz Water Utilisation Engineers. He obtained his B.Eng, B.Eng (Hons) and M.Eng degrees in Water Utilisation Engineering at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He is a registered professional engineer and established his consulting engineering practice Chris Swartz Water Utilisation Engineers in 1991, with offices in Cape Town and Mossel Bay.

He specialises in research, consulting and capacity building projects in water reclamation and reuse and has carried out a number of projects for the Water Research Commission on water reuse. This includes guidelines for monitoring of water quality in reuse projects, health impact risk assessment and management, costing models and has also recently completed a national research project on de facto (unplanned) water reuse.

He was a project partner in TECHNEAU, a five-year EU project on development of water treatment technologies, where he did risk assessments at the Windhoek Water Reclamation plant. He was involved in the Beaufort West direct potable reuse plant from the planning stages through to the commissioning of the plant. Chris provided specialist consultation support to the City of Cape Town during the severe drought and water scarcity that was experienced in 2016 to 2019, focusing on water reuse and recycling, and desalination as water augmentation measures for the City’s New Water Program. He is currently involved in the Faure New Water System and the Cape Flats Indirect Potable Reuse project.

He recently completed an IMESA/WRC funded project in which he compiled a guideline document entitled A Water Reclamation and Reuse Guide for South African Municipal Engineers.

He is a Senior Fellow of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA), founding member and the first Chairperson of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA) Water Reuse Division, and current Chairperson of the Western Cape Chapter of the WISA Water Reuse Division. He is also a member of the International Water Association (IWA) Water Reuse Specialist Group.