Local government lacks civil engineers’ skills
Many professional civil engineers have left local government due to retirement, to join the private sector or to emigrate overseas
Senior professional civil engineers in local government have progressively been replaced by young graduate technicians and technologists who are not being properly mentored to gain the experience necessary to perform the work, says SA Institution of Civil Engineering (Saice) president Steven Kaplan.
The lack of professional civil engineers, technologists and technicians, Kaplan said in an interview, is apparent in the lack of infrastructural development and maintenance work in municipalities, whether it be in water and sewage treatment plants, reticulation systems or roads. The lack of clean water in Hammanskraal, which lead to a cholera outbreak, is just the most recent example of a lack of expertise in the proper planning, maintenance and renewal of infrastructure...
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