President ’ s Message
Unifying sport impresses in PE Praying for rain
Having attended the first cricket ODI ( One Day International ) between South Africa and Sri Lanka recently in Port Elizabeth ( PE ), I was left with two particularly vivid impressions .
Firstly the drought situation in and around PE , where in the middle of summer , it looks worse than the middle of winter , with hardly any greenery evident in the city . The dairy farming area from Alexandria to Nanaga is in a particularly bad way , with hardly any natural grazing or pastures evident . The cost of feeding dairy cattle to keep up milk production , is and will , continue to have a negative effect on an already depressed industry .
With less than a hundred days of drinking water left for the City of Cape Town , we can only hope and pray for early winter rainfall for the Western Cape and corresponding late summer rainfall for the Eastern Cape .
Secondly , I was once again able to witness first hand , the unifying effect that international sport has on the people of this country . In a society that appears to becoming increasingly divisive , it came as a breath of fresh air , to watch a middle-aged Afrikaans speaking white gentleman , bowling to a group of predominantly black and coloured youngsters during the break between innings , and then paying for face painting and ice creams afterwards .
This issue of SABI magazine is loaded with the latest technology , from the ever-increasing use of drones , to SAPWAT 4 , a focus on pivots , and the maintenance and cleaning of disc filters .
Tony Ewels – President
It also features agriculture and business opportunities and information in Africa , appropriately so , as more and more of our engineers , technicians and irrigation companies get involved in the rest of the continent .
SABI | FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017 3