For the residents of Johannesburg, Sober October started dry indeed, with a 12-hour water outage due to emergency repairs.
Alas, Johannesburg is not alone in its ongoing water crisis. The latest Blue Drop Report, released by the Department of Water and Sanitation, shows that in 61 municipalities nationwide, water treatment and supply are in a “critical state”, with water in half of South Africa’s municipalities unsafe to drink.
Municipalities, moreover, are losing up to 72% of the water supplied to them by utilities companies through leaks. And as demand for water grows in the coming years, we are expected to face a 17% supply shortage by 2030 – this means that in that year South Africa will have 17% less water than it needs. This will inevitably have devastating economic, agricultural and human implications.
The cause of this crisis? A severe neglect of infrastructure, compounded by a growing population and a lack of reserve supplies.
Of course, water supply is only one area in which infrastructure has been neglected. In June, the World Bank ranked South Africa’s ports as some of the worst in the world, with Cape Town scoring a dismal 405th position – out of 405 ports! Meanwhile, Transnet is short of more than 200 locomotives, and faces a R50 billion backlog in scheduled maintenance. As for Eskom, it may flaunt the 190-plus days we’ve gone without loadshedding. However, its ongoing “load reduction” and proposed 44% tariff hike show its continuing struggle.
Confronted by this crisis of infrastructure, newly appointed Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Dean Macpherson, has called for South Africa to become a “massive construction site.” Towards this end, he has established an Infrastructure Advisory Committee. But what are the practical steps Macpherson will need to implement if South Africa’s infrastructure is to be redeemed?
Understanding
Resolving our current crisis begins with understanding it. This means that data and data analysis are crucial. LN Sandani, founder and CEO of Singaporean private equity firm, Lensbridge Capital, describes how the Internet of Things (IoT) can help: “[IoT] allows us to create a digital representation of each asset or ‘thing’ in the city – each street-light, waste bin, parking space, bus, road and the like. From this we can monitor the real-time status of each ‘thing’ and use this information to manage the city services more effectively.”
This data-based management is achieved through analytics, namely “cleansing the data, correlating data from different sensors, recognising patterns and trends, identifying anomalies, and generally extracting actionable intelligence that can be used to manage the smart city more effectively.”
Fitting infrastructure with sensors which relay real-time data can identify issues before they are glaring (for example, leak detection systems to prevent the horrifying loss of water earlier described). It also allows effective off-site management and could thereby reduce municipal spending on transport and inspection.
City planners should therefore enhance their understanding of digital engineering. Digital engineering is a term which describes the integration of Building Information Modelling (BIM), Computer Aided Design (CAD), and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), among others, which enable the smart systems described above.
“Green and digital”
As Operation Vulindlela, launched in 2020, enters its second phase, government has promised that it will prioritise “green and digital” growth. The promised investment in digital public infrastructure is hopeful and could open the door to further innovation. This is an area which Macpherson should prioritise.
If South Africa is to implement dynamic new methods, it must first develop dynamic new skills. This is a major hurdle in a country which already has a startling skills gap. The Presidency has previously acknowledged our skills shortage as the second biggest impediment to economic growth, matched only by the impact of loadshedding. Both a lack of training and a loss of skills to emigration are factors in this shortage.
In February, President Cyril Ramaphosa suggested importing skills through reforming the country’s visa system. This would make it easier for “digital nomads” to work for South African companies. While this is certainly a stopgap, it is not a long-term solution. Moreover, it does nothing to alleviate mass unemployment in South Africa.
Targeted skills
Rather, targeted skills development is necessary. For starters, the school curriculum must be updated. In June, the Department of Basic Education announced moves to include coding and robotics in the curriculum. Effectively promoting digital literacy, however, is hampered by the general illiteracy of most pupils. Educational reform is hence urgently needed. This needs to encompass the training and treatment of teachers, who (unlike in many Asian countries) are typically held in low regard.
While quality teachers and curricula are vital, they are merely one part of the foundation for skills. Stephanie Allais, NRF-SARChI Chair in Skills Development at Wits University, suggests that “seeing skill as something to be separated from the knowledge and practice in which it is located leads to misguided and often destructive curriculum reforms.” She goes on to argue that, “Providing training to do specific tasks through formal education is usually a waste of valuable resources”, as “[w]here work requires expertise, it depends on education programmes that are broadly, not narrowly, vocational. That are based on bodies of knowledge in occupational areas, as opposed to teaching the narrow and specific tasks of a particular workplace.” The Department of Basic Education must bear this in mind as it seeks to develop digital literacy.
In addition to developing skills, government must eliminate barriers to utilising existing skills. By this, I mean that government must eliminate race-based policies which hamper the employment of skilled individuals. Eskom, for example, has lost many vital skills, both through cutting white employees (including experienced engineers) to meet race quotas, and through the privileging of politically connected individuals. This is catastrophic for efforts to redeem our infrastructure.
Public-private partnerships
To implement smart infrastructure solutions, and to develop the requisite skills to do so, funding will be required. This cannot come from public coffers alone, due to the scale of investment required. This is where public-private partnerships (PPPs) come in.
PPPs allow the state to retain ownership of public service entities, like Eskom, while outsourcing much of their management to private companies. Private companies not only assume substantial responsibility for the functioning of public service entities. They also bear much of the financial risk in doing so. This alleviates the burden on the state.
PPPs are not without challenges and are not appropriate in every instance. For example, Eskom’s alarming debt (roughly R400 billion), makes it highly unattractive to private entities. In this instance, full privatisation of electricity supply emerges as more desirable. In many other instances, however, PPPs could well help struggling departments and municipalities to restore the functioning of their infrastructure. Examples of successful PPPs in South Africa include the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link, the Chapman’s Peak Drive Road Construction project, and the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Programme. More such projects should aggressively be pursued by government.
Future-focused thinking
In conclusion, South Africa’s injured infrastructure requires digital intervention, a high level of skill, and public-private investment. But even with all these in place, it will still take multiple decades to restore. This should not be taken as a cause for despair. Rather, while spurring urgency, it should deepen our commitment to long-term, future-focused thinking.
As the proverb goes, “Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they’ll never sit in.” When it comes to our infrastructure, we are called upon to plant such trees.
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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