President’s comment

The value of SHARED EXPERIENCES

Between 22 and 24 June 2022, associations from around the world gathered in Rome, Italy, for the International Federation of Municipal Engineering (IFME) Annual Convention. This included IFME’s first of two board meetings for the year. The second will be held in South Africa, coinciding with IMESA’s 85th Annual Conference in November 2022.

As the president of IMESA, I had the honour of representing South Africa at the 2022 IFME Convention, sharing key infrastructure challenges with municipal engineering counterparts from Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. Presentations focused on ways to achieve a sustainable green transition within the urban context.

Key topics covered included the reimagining of sustainable urban spaces, smart mobility and asset management. The latter topic is especially important in managing and progressively upgrading ageing infrastructure, particularly water and sewer pipelines. Stemming non-revenue water losses remains a global concern, from both environmental and financial perspectives, so this is an area where a great deal of IFME knowledge-sharing takes place.

Sustainable strategies

Universally, IFME members acknowledge that climate change is the biggest single threat to our future. However, the way in which individual countries respond will be influenced by their unique socio-economic history and culture.

From an energy perspective, for example, South Africa’s shift from coal-fired to renewable power stations will be more gradual than in Europe, where the clean energy transition is already well advanced. Key reasons for this locally include funding availability, the current policy environment, plus the fact that many South African communities depend on coal mining for their livelihoods. South Africa’s urban landscape has also been strongly influenced and affected by apartheid spatial planning. The result is that there are disconnects, with poorer communities often housed at significant distances from economic opportunities.

In line with international trends, South Africa has witnessed a major migration from rural to urban areas as job seekers enter cities look for work. As many are unemployed, they end up joining rapidly expanding informal settlements, placing additional strain on resources and existing infrastructure services.

People-centric infrastructure

Across the board, a key takeaway from the rigorous Covid-19 lockdowns imposed worldwide has been the need to create liveable spaces that place people at the centre of city planning. Social housing, for example, isn’t there purely to provide accommodation. It must enhance the living experience.

Game changers

As municipal engineers, we have a key role to play in influencing next-generation service delivery from a design and build perspective. And not every solution has to be state of the art to be innovative.

This is certainly underscored by the ancient legacy of Italy’s Roman infrastructure – from the Colosseum to still functional aqueducts and roads. These icons remind us of what is possible with the technology available at the time, and what works best in practice.

From an environmental viewpoint, simple interventions like rainwater harvesting tanks are hugely beneficial in helping to preserve scarce water sources. Communities not connected to conventional sanitation can also be serviced with alternative, cost-effective solutions that aren’t high-tech.

An example I shared with IFME delegates is a pilot project under way in eThekwini Municipality in partnership with the Pollution Research Group. This entails the trialling of a modular Decentralised Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) plant for on-site waterborne sanitation. Designed to treat wastewater from some 86 households, the potential for reuse in an irrigation application is also being investigated, fostering SMME opportunities for vegetable farmers.

The fact is that greenhouse gas emissions know no boundaries, and the world shares a common responsibility in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. How countries individually and collectively achieve this depends on collaboration. Our role as IMESA – in conjunction with IFME – is to facilitate this process within the municipal arena.

Bhavna Soni, president, IMESA