 The 18th of September is World Water Monitoring Day, held each year to promote public awareness around the importance of water quality by involving communities in water testing and monitoring.
“Community participation is essential to preserving this precious but scarce resource, without which we cannot survive,” says Dr Lester Goldman, Chief Executive Officer of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA). However, says Goldman, ongoing training and capacity building among all stakeholders is critical to ensuring South Africa manages water demand meaningfully and effectively. Water scarcity in SA Stats SA estimates that South Africa’s population in 2025 is 63.1 million people. By 2040, that figure is projected at 74 million and by 2050, just over 79 million. Although the population continues to expand, the country’s water supply does not. According to the World Bank, while each Icelandic person had 456,351 cubic metres of water available to them in 2021, each South African had only 728 cubic metres. “Our water is a fixed sum and can only be preserved through protection of water sources, conservative use and heavy recycling, all of which take concerted effort by municipalities and the public alike,” says Goldman. The good news is that targeted training and capacity building that engage communities has already shown results in several past projects. Good examples Water projects in Mogale, Emfuleni and Khayelitsha each enlisted the help of their communities to build capacity and achieved outstanding results through training and workshops. In Mogale City, the Demand Management Training Programme addressed the municipality’s skills shortages by training twelve unemployed and indigent youths - especially women - as water demand managers. These individuals were taught various skills, such as leak detection, data logging, meter reading and installation, control valve maintenance, and more. The result was improved capacity, better skills and job creation. The Emfuleni Leakage Reduction Project was created to address abnormal consumption due to the overuse of hosepipes and sprinklers by residents. The municipality hired and trained 51 Water Services Assessors and two Water Services Assessor Coordinators, and implemented schools’ awareness, community awareness and water wise gardening programmes. This resulted in better reporting of water and sanitation problems, allowing municipal capacity to be allocated more effectively. In Khyelitsha, the main source of leakage was identified as damage to low-cost housing plumbing fittings by the high-pressure water supply. Residents could neither afford to repair the constant leaks nor foot the bill for the wasted water. A Pressure Management Project saw the construction of a pressure management installation to reduce excessive pressure using local labour, the training of two municipal personnel to maintain and operate the installation, and the participation of the community in making the project a success. The programme saves more than nine million cubic metres of water per year, amounting to R27 million per annum. “These projects show the importance of community involvement, but they can only succeed through good leadership and professional expertise,” says Goldman. The need for professionalisation Professionalisation in municipality water planning, management and operations ensure that communities are dealt with ethically and competently. “Professionalisation is a core driver of capacity building and training because those implementing efficiency programmes and passing skills down to communities have proven themselves compliant with law and recognised standards of competence and practice,” says Goldman. WISA makes itself available to municipalities across South Africa to build professionalisation in the water industry. “This can ensure that more of these projects are initiated and concluded successfully for effective water demand management and the preservation of our most precious resource,” says Goldman. Sources:
ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, [email protected], 082 573 9219, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on WISA please visit: Website: https://wisa.org.za/ X: @WaterInstituteSA LinkedIn: Water Institute of Southern Africa Facebook: Water Institute of Southern Africa
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 The African Union-AIP Water Investment Summit 2025 held in Cape Town this month proved largely successful, raising USD 10 billion[1] in investment commitments for the continent.
However, water infrastructure investment needs to be equally matched by investment in skills and professionalisation within both the water sector and its external support partners. This is according to Dr Lester Goldman, CEO of the Water Institute of Southern Africa (WISA). “We’re not saying that infrastructure investment is not critical or welcome but without the right skills, it’s an exercise in futility,” he says. The human factor Days before the summit, President Ramaphosa presided over the opening of the new System 5A Water Purification Plant[2] at Rand Water’s Zuikerbosch Station in Vereeniging. The plant adds 600 million litres of potable water per day to the system - enough to supply 2.4 million people. “We are celebrating the completion of a vital piece of infrastructure, and we are affirming our shared commitment to the people of South Africa to continuously provide clean, reliable and safe water,” he said. It’s a commitment that needs to be supported by sufficient capacity and skills. “Capacity speaks of the right mix of people, processes and policies within organisations responsible for water, but skills are about the people themselves possessing standards-based talent to perform their duties effectively,” says Goldman. There must be ample skills in three main categories - leadership; management across the various departments; and technical skills within the water department itself. Goldman says each is equally important and supports the others to form a dependency chain. Leaders in the water sector are not necessarily water experts. They are counsellors, decision makers, finance managers and other managers in support departments outside the technical water department. So, they depend on the expertise of technical professionals. Professionalisation and training Regulation 3630[3] , gazetted on 3 June 2023, requires that water services works be supervised by at least a Class V process controller. Professionals of this class and above must register with WISA, meet its membership standards, and pursue continuous professional development (CPD) as required. Lower classes must also undergo continued education independently. Yet, there is a lot of resistance to the regulation. Most process controllers work in municipalities and, although they knew they had until 1 July 2025 to register, many have not complied. Goldman says it comes from a combination of ignorance, unnecessary budgetary resistance by the powers that be, and the individuals themselves. Councillors, municipal managers, politicians and others in charge don’t want to spend money, although the cost of training is comparatively low. Individuals may fear that they don’t meet the standard or may not be able to maintain it going forward. “These concerns are unnecessary - you spend less maintaining skills than maintaining broken infrastructure and processes, and professionalisation is not an obstacle but a career enhancer,” says Goldman. A boon to the water sector Regulation 3630 promises to enhance accountability, transparency and performance within the water sector - something many process controllers want. “They are finally being acknowledged as professionals, like engineers and scientists in the industry already are,” he says. The well-known Blue Drop and Green Drop reports also draw a direct correlation between municipality performance and their capacity. So, yes, water investment is welcome but people are just as critical as pipes and plants, and South Africa must invest in both to secure water resilience. Goldman invites municipalities and process controllers to open a dialogue with WISA to air their concerns and understand the true benefits of professionalisation. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Idéle Prinsloo, [email protected], 082 573 9219, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on WISA please visit: Website: https://wisa.org.za/ X: @WaterInstituteSA LinkedIn: Water Institute of Southern Africa Facebook: Water Institute of Southern Africa https://www.gov.za/news/media-statements/water-and-sanitation-more-10-billion-raised-during-water-investment-summit%C2%A0 https://infrastructurenews.co.za/2025/08/13/south-africas-new-water-plant-secures-future-supply-for-2-4-million-people/ https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/202307/48865gon3630.pdf |
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