‘Patch and pray’ is no solution to maintenance failure, engineering expert says
Kevin Wall told the Water Institute of SA that limited resources‚ public-sector restructuring and inefficiency have led to extreme pressure on infrastructure
Infrastructure maintenance has been on the slide for the last dozen years, and it is not getting any better. This was the solemn warning on Monday by Kevin Wall‚ who was the lead researcher in the 2006‚ 2011 and 2017 South African Institution of Civil Engineering infrastructure report cards. Speaking at the Water Institute of Southern Africa conference in Cape Town‚ Wall said: "We cannot afford to build only to permit decay. We want to move from a situation of ‘patch and pray’ to one of ‘find and fix’. Maintenance is crucial." He said a combination of limited resources‚ public-sector restructuring‚ inefficiency‚ skill shortages and "less than optimum governance"‚ had led to "extreme pressure on the condition of the public infrastructure asset base". Wall added: "It is of concern that the water and sanitation fixed infrastructure of the country appears to be stuck in a condition that is at best ‘satisfactory for now’ … [and] ‘at worst‚ unfit for purpose’. "But it is mostly at risk of...
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