Young municipal engineers building the future of South Africa's water sector

SOUTH Africa's water sector is standing at a crossroads. Decades of underinvestment in infrastructure, rapid urbanisation, climate change, and persistent skills shortages have converged to create a perfect storm.

- MANJUSHA SUNIL

The results are felt daily: communities experiencing erratic water supply, treatment plants running below capacity, and municipalities stretched to breaking point as they try to meet their constitutional mandate to provide water for all.

Behind every one of these challenges stands a critical but often overlooked figure, the municipal engineer. These are the custodians of the country's water systems, the professionals who keep pumps running, maintain treatment plants, and design the infrastructure that underpins our daily lives.

Yet many of them work in conditions where resources are scarce, professional development opportunities are limited, and support systems are fragmented. Burnout, brain drain, and declining capacity are the inevitable outcomes thus widening the gap between what municipalities must deliver and what they are capable of achieving.

And yet, in every crisis lies the seed of opportunity. If we are serious about tackling South Africa's water challenges, we must begin by investing in the people who hold the keys to our systems. This is precisely the philosophy behind the Young Engineers Changemakers Programme (YECP), a bold initiative that places municipal engineers at the centre of transformation.

The urgency could not be greater. The 2018 "Day Zero" crisis in Cape Town served as a global wake-up call. But beyond the headlines, dozens of smaller municipalities face daily emergencies like water pumps that break down due to lack of maintenance, rivers contaminated by untreated sewage, or treatment plants that limp along at half their designed capacity. These are not just technical failures, they are governance and human capital failures.