The Civil Engineering Contractor January 2018 | Page 29

INSIGHT
With its own failing water infrastructure, is Cuba expertise the right way to go to set South Africa’s water woes at ease?
in national and provincial infrastructure
departments. He points out that the
money spent on establishing and
accommodating the Cuban engineers
in South Africa could possibly be better
spent by re-looking current salaries and
working environments in these areas,
to the benefit of South African civil
engineering practitioners, “thereby
creating sustainable jobs within
South Africa”.
It is no secret that many South African
engineers have left the country in search
of a safer lifestyle and better remunerated
jobs overseas. Pillay suggests that this
body of professionals needs to be wooed
back to the country. “Government needs
to make strides to attract South African
engineers back to South Africa, and back
into our government sector where they
are most needed. If there is a shortage
thereafter, then the whole world can
join us!” he adds.
In addition to the numerous
challenges with the Cuban option
– including cultural and linguistic
misalignments, both critical when
undertaking a training role – Pillay
points out, “Importing Cuban
engineers has a possible unintended
cost, such as the lack of training and
developmental opportunities for our
own young engineers.”
He says that, “SAICE is seriously
perturbed about the import of Cuban
engineers,” and once again urges
government, and specifically the
Department of Water and Sanitation,
“to further engage with us (SAICE) to
find solutions.”
CESA says
Asked for comment, Chris Campbell,
CEO of CESA quotes the words from
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
written in 1834, by Samuel Taylor
Coleridge, ‘Water, water everywhere
and not a drop to drink…’
He comments that these words ring
true for South Africa now more than
ever before.
“Sure, there are plans to address
the fact that we are a water scarce
country and work has started on the
Lesotho Highlands Phase 2 project –
albeit five years later than it should
have – and some work is also being
done to address the capacity of some
of the existing dams, but stories of
corruption and poor delivery abound,
and we should be concerned when the
Department of Water and Sanitation
(DWS) claims that it has no money
to undertake the very tasks that fall
within its mandate,” he says and adds
that the trend of water storage tanks,
buckets, bottles and long queues for
water from mobile tankers seem to be
“rapidly emerging as the new normal
in the cities”.
He continues, “It appears also, that
whilst unaddressed hygiene issues
within the department have all but
depleted the bulk of its longstanding
experienced cadre of water
practitioners, the assumption that we
need to get in Cuban engineers to
solve our water problems continues to
prevail. Consulting Engineers South
Africa (CESA), remains steadfast in
its previously expressed viewpoint
that this is a very short-sighted
approach and is not sustainable,”
Campbell adds.
While he is quick to point out that
this observation is by no means an
attack on Cubans who have been
“longstanding allies of South Africa’s
liberation movements”, it is simply “a
question of whether it makes sense
that the DWS should be so dismissive
of our own engineering capabilities,”
he queries. “To add insult to injury,
engineering practitioners in our
consulting engineering sector are
currently only 83% utilised, so there
certainly is sufficient local capacity
available,” he stresses.
“The Deputy Minister of the DWS,
Pamela Tshwete’s, signing of the
agreement with Cuba’s Institute of
National Hydraulic Resources (INHR)
to extend the RSA-Cuba Cooperation
agreement to 2023, is of grave
concern, as it begs the question as to
whether we can learn from them or
whether we should instead be sharing
our knowledge with them?”
CEC January 2018 - 27