The disclosure by Census 2011 that more people are moving to the Western Cape and Gauteng as a result of urbanisation is cause for concern, avers Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) CEO Graham Pirie.

“It brings new dynamics into play in terms of new infrastructure spend and will come with added costs, which calls for more infrastructure investment and innovative funding models,” says Pirie.

With a quest of pioneering change, CESA is committed to the principles of sustainability and the promotion of engineering excellence and represents over 480 firms. Partnering with government and the private sector, CESA firms are delivering infrastructure in the form of improved power supply, better roads, safe drinking water and efficient sanitation. These infrastructure projects are helping to create jobs, alleviate poverty and provide a better quality of life for all South Africans

Of interest is that the government in the National Planning Commission’s vision 2030 acknowledges that in the next few decades, the world will experience unprecedented changes.

These include an explosion of urbanisation, which will create wealth and sharpen strains on the ecosystem; revolutionary developments in science and technology that will transform opportunities, introduce new risks, and drive wider social integration; and a rebalancing of economic power from developed to developing countries that will potentially lift another billion people out of poverty.

The vision further states that the cumulative effect of these trends are highly uncertain. Higher levels of interconnectivity in the global system – engaging a much larger number of actors with different interests and beliefs – makes it difficult to understand how the system will respond in any given scenario.

Pirie points out that urbanisation bring major opportunities to the built environment fraternity to assist with input in championing the infrastructure requirements to improve the quality of lives of the people for a better life for all.

He calls for business and government to come up with viable models that will improve and assist with the infrastructure roll-out.

“Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel and construction industry related business organisations need to have regular interaction, which will be taken to the construction industry members to inform or guide them as to the best way to respond to the infrastructure delivery plan.”