Ageing workforce in water sector a worry - AG

schumi

schumi

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Pretoria – An ageing professional workforce and lack of succession planning for water engineers and scientists is hindering service delivery, Auditor General Kimi Makwetu said in Pretoria on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, health services were hampered by a shortage of pharmacists and pharmacists' assistants, who played a big role in the distribution of pharmaceutical products, and helped nursing staff.

Makwetu was releasing the performance audit reports of pharmaceutical products, water infrastructure and urban renewal projects.

He was worried about the lack of capacity in district municipalities to operate and maintain water infrastructure.

Makwetu said his office looked at water projects in seven district municipalities in six provinces.

Even though there were good intentions in government strategies and policies, and they were thought through, finer planning and execution was lacking.

In water services, there were no agreements governing co-operation, operational aspects or maintenance. This had a negative impact on the lifespan of infrastructure.

A lack of communication, proper documentation and monitoring and co-ordination at all three levels of government had a further negative impact on service delivery.

Lack of money

One of the biggest problems hampering the delivery of water services was that money was not made available to municipalities. They received too little money for operational management and maintenance, Makwetu said.
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More at: http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ageing-workforce-in-water-sector-a-worry-ag-20161130
 
One of the biggest problems hampering the delivery of water services was that money was not made available to municipalities. They received too little money for operational management and maintenance, Makwetu said.
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Oh they receive the money. It all goes to private engineering firms though cause the in-house muni people can't engineer their way out of a wet paper bag.
 
HavocXphere said:
Oh they receive the money. It all goes to private engineering firms though cause the in-house muni people can't engineer their way out of a wet paper bag.
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This ^. Get the consultants in that used to work there back in the day before you fired them and they started their own companies or joined other firms. They are now better off than before.
 
HavocXphere said:
Oh they receive the money. It all goes to private engineering firms though cause the in-house muni people can't engineer their way out of a wet paper bag.
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You might be right but isn't racist to say that?
 
Decolonize edumacation.

I like this new education stats. It means I will always be certain of a higher income and employment up until I want to retire.

This is the same problem in most areas not just water.
 
Too bad about the brain drain. So plan-B-Cuba ran out of engineers and pharmacists?
 
ponder said:
This ^. Get the consultants in that used to work there back in the day before you fired them and they started their own companies or joined other firms. They are now better off than before.
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There's usually a good reason for firing someone.
 
No surprise there because its an issue in every engineering sector I have worked in i.e. Research, Academic, Consultancy and Production environment. The gap in engineering expertise between seasoned and young professionals is a problem.
 
dlk001 said:
No surprise there because its an issue in every engineering sector I have worked in i.e. Research, Academic, Consultancy and Production environment. The gap in engineering expertise between seasoned and young professionals is a problem.
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Couldn't agree more . I think a lot has to do with the "entitlement attitude that seems to be growing every year with each subsequent (and admittedly smaller) group of grads that come out of varsity. I hate sounding like an old fart but I have found that the desire for learning and enthusiasm for acquiring the basic skills to do the job properly is sorely lacking in most grads. Everyone wants to be a manager (or worse a "consultant") ... nobody wants to do the actual work
Could just be my perception but I hear the same from many experienced technical people
 
McSack said:
Couldn't agree more . I think a lot has to do with the "entitlement attitude that seems to be growing every year with each subsequent (and admittedly smaller) group of grads that come out of varsity. I hate sounding like an old fart but I have found that the desire for learning and enthusiasm for acquiring the basic skills to do the job properly is sorely lacking in most grads. Everyone wants to be a manager (or worse a "consultant") ... nobody wants to do the actual work
Could just be my perception but I hear the same from many experienced technical people
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It's not just you.
 
Can't say for water engineers but I work with a few municipalities for electrical projects and their electrical engineers are not even qualified engineers (I can remember one who is a civil engineer managing the electrical network and another one only has a certificate).

They don't even have the plans of their network, or their substations, or their minisubs and no reliable asset register either.

Maintenance is long overdue, I've also seen a transformer being scrapped out because the contractor just left without doing the works and the brand new transformer ended up being stored in open air without oil in it which made it unusable...
 
f2wohf said:
Can't say for water engineers but I work with a few municipalities for electrical projects and their electrical engineers are not even qualified engineers (I can remember one who is a civil engineer managing the electrical network and another one only has a certificate).

They don't even have the plans of their network, or their substations, or their minisubs and no reliable asset register either.

Maintenance is long overdue, I've also seen a transformer being scrapped out because the contractor just left without doing the works and the brand new transformer ended up being stored in open air without oil in it which made it unusable...
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you think that is bad... I have to help them because when a cable fault occurs, they just don't have the skills. They cannot seem to comprehend a phase-to-earth fault, or how to locate it, or even how to thump a cable, granted we now have reflectometers doing the job of thumpers.

Can't even cast joints properly, so they fail after 2-3 years causing a freaking fire...

Sorry, going off topic
 
McSack said:
Couldn't agree more . I think a lot has to do with the "entitlement attitude that seems to be growing every year with each subsequent (and admittedly smaller) group of grads that come out of varsity. I hate sounding like an old fart but I have found that the desire for learning and enthusiasm for acquiring the basic skills to do the job properly is sorely lacking in most grads. Everyone wants to be a manager (or worse a "consultant") ... nobody wants to do the actual work
Could just be my perception but I hear the same from many experienced technical people
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I share the same perception in my exposure in Civil/Mining Engineering field. I get a feeling that many young engineers have a job while seasoned professionals have careers.

Recently I was looking for a Hydrogeologist, I received 12 applications including one person with a PhD. There was one successful candidate who has the experience to match his CV at the lowest Salary. The rest of the candidates are people with job experience but did not develop expertise. Many are already working as senior managers in the private sector and parastatals.

Like you said, developing expertise requires one to have the desire for learning and enthusiasm for acquiring the basic skills to do the job (get your hands dirty) . Only then you can really see the gaps, advance knowledge to close the gaps. You cannot become a manager, consultant by skipping that step.
 
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The biggest problem is the primary schooling not advancing the technical and artisan routes.
But as you say everbody wants to be the manager.
 
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