Ms Lauren Grootboom

Lauren is currently a PhD candidate at the Future Water Institute and is currently supervised by Dr. Amber Abrams. Her research explores how Indigenous Knowledge systems and women’s contextualised local and traditional knowledge of the communities can be centred in South Africa’s water systems. Lauren joined the Future Water Institute in 2023 as a research Assistant on the Managed Aquifer Recharge with Blue-Green Infrastructure project which was finalised in 2024. Lauren is currently working as a Research Assistant in the Pathways to Water resilient South African cities (PaWS) project. 

Her research interests are driven by the understanding that our most sustainable water solutions lie at the intersection of traditional ecological knowledge and contemporary engineering practices. Women have historically maintained crucial roles as water custodians in their communities thus Lauren’s research aims to center this significance in engineering approaches to water infrastructure. Laurens research interests centre Indigenous Knowledge systems and the power that lies in unpacking peoples lived experiences through their oral histories and how they navigate their environments and broader society by contextualising women’s erasure and silencing within these spaces.