Durban - Water entity Umgeni Water has revealed plans to develop more engineers in a bid to have a larger pool of skilled personnel for operations in the future.
At a press briefing to present its annual financial report for the 2021/22 financial year at Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre on Thursday, Acting Chief Executive Dr Sipho Manana indicated that they wanted to increase the pool of engineers in line with the country’s needs.
He told the media that while the entity had developed technicians and engineers in the past, retaining them had been a challenge.
“We train engineers for long periods of time, ensuring that they get skilled while paying them, and then municipalities poach them. There is not much that we can do to stop that,” said Manana.
As a response to the challenge, the entity’s top brass had worked on a plan that would see greater collaboration with tertiary institutions in order to grow the skills base within the water sector, especially engineering.
“We are looking at partnering with learning academies within the water sector in order to deal with this challenge,” Manana continued. Such a move of partnering with institutions of higher learning was a practice that was found in other countries, and the water entity was optimistic that in the long run such an effort would yield positive results.
Umgeni Water bosses acknowledged that last year’s floods had caused extensive damage to water infrastructure, but pointed out that the episode had also provided lessons, especially the importance of greater co-operation between different stakeholders.
Umgeni Water board chairperson Ziphozethu Mathenjwa indicated that the regular tests they conducted on water quality should serve as an assurance to all consumers that the water from Umgeni Water was of the highest quality.