INSTITUTE NEWS
Meet the new 2020-2022 management team
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raditionally, the new President is inaugurated at the annual IMESA Conference in October, but that was not possible this year due to Covid-19. The next annual conference will now be hosted between 17 and 19 November 2021 in Cape Town in collaboration with the International Association for Water, Environment, Energy, and Society.
In the meantime, IMESA’s Exco team will continue to forge ahead in delivering the Institute’s mandate of promoting and capacitating municipal engineering excellence across South Africa. The 20202022 Office Bearers will be led by Bhavna Soni, who becomes IMESA’s first woman President.
At the end of each two-year cycle, a new IMESA President takes the helm for the next 24-month cycle, supported by the Immediate Past President as deputy and two Vice Presidents. These are ex-officio members of Council together with the Operations and Technical Directors that comprise the executive committee.
NEW INCOMING PRESIDENT (NOVEMBER 2020 TO OCTOBER 2022)
BHAVNA SONI, PR ENG
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IMIESA October 2020
Bhavna Soni matriculated in 1982 and obtained her BSc Civil Engineering in 1987 from South Gujarat University in India. She married a South African and settled here in 1990. She has been a registered professional engineer since 2008. Bhavna worked in the consulting field as a structural engineer prior to joining eThekwini Municipality in 1997. She subsequently worked in the Design Department, working on reservoir and pipeline projects. She then moved to the Planning Department, where her duties involved designing bulk water infrastructure for the eThekwini region. In 2005, Bhavna was
promoted to the position of manager: Rural Systems. Later in 2008, she was promoted to senior manager: Water Operations, combining rural and urban areas. Bhavna also acted as deputy head for water and waste operations for two years before being appointed to her current position as a deputy head: Engineering for eThekwini’s Water & Sanitation Unit. Currently, she is responsible for the design and implementation of water and wastewater infrastructure, as well as providing strategic direction to reduce non-revenue water within the eThekwini region. Bhavna joined IMESA in 2008 and has served on Exco since 2014.
