Water, Sewage & Effluent July August 2018 | Page 38

There is no place for crisis management in proper water resource management.
Planning for water projects
In a sector as critical as that of water, there is no room for crisis management.
By Helgard Muller, Pr Eng
W
hen starting as a young
engineer many moons ago
in the planning division of
the Department of Water Affairs, a
report was put in my hands by David
Keyser, the chief engineer at that
stage. “Young man, go and read this
— it is important!” were his words. I
never since regretted the time spent
reading it.
South Africa went through a
devastating drought in the late sixties
and as a result, a special Commission
of Enquiry into Water Matters was
mandated by government. One of
the copies of their report, printed by
the Government Printer in 1970, thus
landed on my desk, thanks to Keyser.
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One
of
the
Commission’s
recommendations was that a
dedicated unit be established in the
Department of Water Affairs to take
full responsibility for proper planning.
Up to that stage, dams were simply
designed and built. A few white
elephants and less effective projects
were indeed constructed — so, unlike
some people are claiming today,
everything was not perfect in the ‘old’
South Africa. The positive result of
this recommendation was that a well
capacitated unit was indeed created,
which did sterling work to plan water
schemes like the Thukela-Vaal and
Lesotho Highlands projects well in
advance. Economic development
in South Africa was supported with
Water Sewage & Effluent July/August 2018
several projects serving strategic
industries such as Sasol and Eskom.
Unfortunately, we have reached a
stage where national water planning
has slowed down to such a level that
the social and economic future of the
country is at risk. This is a result of
lack of capacity as well as a shift in
priorities at the Department of Water
and Sanitation. Most politicians do
not like planning, as planning needs
thorough research, time, and effort, as
well as a comparison of alternatives
and lastly, a large chunk of economics
and minimal populist inputs. This is a
pity, as planning, when correctly used,
can be an essential tool for politicians
to arrive at the optimum solutions for
the benefit of society.