PHIL MASHOKO | Strengthening water board expertise for secure supply chains

Water supply security involves more than just water resources.

Key factors also include water quality, infrastructure integrity, demand management and operational efficiencies. If any of these elements fail, water supply security is at risk.

The increasing frequency of flooding calls for innovative water management methods. The development of off-river dams to store floodwaters should be explored.

Likewise, the construction of underground dams, a concept that has matured globally, should be pursued to utilise the estimated 34-billion cubic metres of groundwater recharge each year.

Furthermore, a co-ordinated improvement in the capacity of system components across the water supply value chain is vital to prevent dams from spilling over without providing water to consumers.

Enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of water boards is essential for establishing a strong value-chain nucleus that guarantees water supply security.

Water availability should be central to all economic and spatial planning. Economic investment promotion should focus on industries producing low-water-footprint products to increase net imports of virtual water. Compact and densified developments should be encouraged to minimise water losses.

Paradigm shifts in prioritising payment for water services and implementing cost-reflective tariffs that are punitive above water-use efficiency consumption levels are essential. Water use efficiency practices must be embedded in the municipal bylaws.

Enhancing the capacity and effectiveness of water boards is essential for establishing a strong value-chain nucleus that guarantees water supply security.

The composition and expertise of board members should cover all functional areas of the water sector, with an emphasis on technical expertise.

The suitability test for a board member should assess whether the chairperson can act as the chief executive and whether other board members are capable of serving as executive directors in their respective functional areas if needed.

The 2023 Blue Drop Report highlights a concerning shortage of engineering expertise across water boards, with only 35 engineers in total. A diverse mix of engineers and scientists to provide the necessary range of expertise throughout the technical value chain should be a priority.

Read: Technical skills dry up in SA water boards

It is crucial to mandate that municipalities develop and implement asset management plans supported by infrastructure asset performance indicators and to gradually achieve ISO SANS 55,000 accreditation.

This will ensure the stability and availability of water infrastructure. Depreciation should be cash-backed for future recapitalisation. Municipal leaders must dispel the misconception that municipal asset management is solely a financial function.

Low operational resilience across most municipalities contributes to the country’s water crisis. It is vital that municipalities design, integrate and manage water schemes in accordance with the N-1 philosophy.

Collaborative storage and sharing of critical materials and equipment among municipalities can help to manage supply chain vulnerabilities.

Flexibility in organisational structures is essential to ensure agility in responding to potential hazards. SANS/ISO 31,000 risk management certification should be encouraged for water systems.

Critical functions, such as pressure management, leak detection, pipe and valve replacement, meter management and calibration, should be insourced to eliminate management risks.

There is a need for manufacturer-accredited training for supplied equipment and materials. This was once a common, obligatory professional practice among manufacturers, but it has faded into obscurity due to the middleman supply model that dominates local government.

Municipalities are experiencing increasing pipe failures largely due to declining standards in network management and deteriorating valve control practices, leading to dangerous transient pressures.

Timely replacement of faulty air valves, servitude management and systematic valve exercising — which were once routine parts of daily technical oversight — are now nonexistent. Reinforcing fundamental operational discipline is crucial to restoring the water network’s integrity and preventing avoidable infrastructure failures.

Water supply technical operations governance has been neglected compared to other types of governance and is in critical condition. The few water departments that perform well, such as Ekurhuleni Metro and the City of Cape Town, have matured in technical governance. There is a need to ensure that all municipalities are compelled to pursue and implement ISO 9001/2 Quality Management Systems.

Historically, city engineers provided strong technical and professional leadership and, where necessary, made unpopular yet sound technical decisions in the public and the organisation’s best interests.

Currently, municipal decisions are often dominated by administrative and political structures. This culture has infiltrated and stifled the engineering profession, affecting the judgment, analytical skills, technical proficiency and problem-solving capabilities of municipal engineers, driving capable, innovative young engineers away from municipalities.

Perhaps the solution is to provide greater autonomy to engineering departments by reviewing relevant legislation, such as the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

Currently, municipal decisions are often dominated by administrative and political structures. This culture has infiltrated and stifled the engineering profession, affecting the judgment, analytical skills, technical proficiency and problem-solving capabilities of municipal engineers, driving capable, innovative young engineers away from municipalities.

The National Treasury introduced a mandatory MFMA minimum qualification for senior managers to equip them with financial and supply chain management competencies. In support of the rebuilding of water systems, a similar qualification for technical services should be developed and be a prerequisite for appointing municipal managers and senior managers.

The conflation of the BSc (Hons) and B Tech Engineering degrees has produced homogeneous, blended municipal engineers whose identities resemble none of the ideal professionals intended by either qualification.

Professionals should be assigned responsibilities commensurate with their qualifications to ensure effective contributions to solving water problems. Project management is missing competence among technical professionals that should be made compulsory at the tertiary level.

The water sector is devoid of organisations that produce technically proficient municipal engineers like Eskom does for the electricity industry. Two or three municipalities or entities should be supported to become exemplary models for developing skilled professional municipal engineers.

The shortage of qualified municipal plumbers due to inadequate higher education training in large-diameter municipal piping is an underappreciated issue that severely affects infrastructure performance. One metro has since established its own training school to address this problem. TVET colleges and capable municipalities should embrace this challenge.

Section 152 of the constitution mandates municipalities to ensure the provision of services, not provide them. Most municipalities chose to provide direct water services despite capacity limitations. Independent due diligence assessments to decide on the most appropriate service delivery mechanism, as per the legislation, should be enforced.

Legislatively, communities can demand this from municipalities. The water business must be financially ringfenced with a strong monitoring performance system for ringfenced-out functions.

Experienced, retired and practising municipal water engineers, scientists and artisans should be given opportunities to share their views on the water situation, as they seem crowded out. Paying attention to the soft issues of water management is important.

• Mashoko, a former director of water & sanitation in Cape Town, is an engineer specialising in water, sanitation and municipal infrastructure.