
Of great concern is that most municipalities have a significant infrastructure asset value, but do not have the engineering capacity to manage those assets
The report found that even if the number of water service technicians were added to the number of water engineers in municipalities, the national average would still only sit at 1.9 per 100000 people, less than half of the ideal ratio.
This emphasised “the significant technical staffing gap that currently exists”, the report found. Pillay said: “There are absolutely dire consequences. If there are no engineers then nobody is doing any planning – and planning isn’t for a year or two, its 20, 30 or 40 years down the line.” The shortage meant infrastructure programmes were often not adequate, and that infrastructure was not properly maintained, he added. –TimesLIVE (Penwell Dlamini and Matthew Savides)