| Africa
more specialist and expert roles, although I still work with the ARQ Dams team in South Africa on the more interesting and larger projects. I have served on the ICOLD Committee for
Concrete Dams for 10 years and enjoyed very much contributing as lead author to the 2020 ICOLD Bulletin 177 on RCC Dams. Having served two terms as Chairman of SANCOLD,
I regard my election in 2022 as ICOLD Vice-President for the Africa zone as an opportunity to use my voice to increase awareness of worsening capacity and dam safety problems in Africa. I do not believe the most common manner in which we have been developing and implementing projects in Africa over the past several decades is at all appropriate and I believe that we are running out of time to acknowledge the related changes that need to be made.
Change is needed It is predicted that the population of Africa will double
by 2050, implying that 2.5 billion people, or 25% of the planet’s population, will live in Africa. This means that we are going to need to substantially increase water storage for food production and domestic and industrial use, not to mention power production. This will require not only the development of high quality and durable dam projects, but just as importantly, the development of the local capacity to operate and maintain these projects. Additionally, it is critically important that the development of new projects must be used to progressively develop local capacity to enable the local planning and management of large- scale water infrastructure projects and programmes. The worst-case scenario for any project is for the host country to be left with a facility that does not fully serve its intended purpose, or achieve its target production capacity and for that project to be implemented by a foreign contractor, who imported all his labour, materials and equipment from his home country. In this situation, very little of the project
implementation goes to uplift the local economy during construction, while the host country is not only unable to fully service the capital debt through scheme operation, but is left without the necessary local skills and institutional capacity to manage and maintain the new project, let alone plan the subsequent one. We simply cannot continue this approach any longer and we need to look to different project implementation models, which need to go beyond the infrastructure and look at the human and institutional needs. In many African countries, project development should always be extended to look at and plan for the institutional needs not only to run the proposed project, but to establish a planning system for ongoing national bulk water storage infrastructure development. In the process, we should do our utmost to support and develop national committees with ICOLD membership, with a view to ensuring sustainable dam safety. We also need to look closely at our dam safety
systems, regulations and legislation. While the dam safety legislation implemented in South Africa in 1986 has served the country very well over the intervening years and is generally well regarded around Africa and the world, it was developed on a premise that no longer exists. When the legislation was drawn up, several dams were under construction in the country at any one time and experienced dam designers and constructors were plentiful. The legislation was consequently based on using the related skills and experience to maintain dam safety. Almost 40 years later, very few new dams are constructed and skills and knowledge in dam design and construction are becoming progressively scarcer. Consequently, we need to redevelop the existing system around the available skills and specific dam safety training, rather than design and construction experience. Many related situations and issues exist around the world and we, as ICOLD, need to try to understand and pre- empt the changing needs and requirements. ●
Above: Mndwaka dam in South Africa
Below left: Yusufeli dam in Turkey
Below right: Bakubung in South Africa
www.waterpowermagazine.com | March 2023 | 17
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