April 2011

Responsibility and the infrastructure scorecard

The Institute of Civil Engineers (SAICE) has just published its Infrastructure Report Card for South Africa 2011. This report is the collective opinion of civil engineering professionals on the current condition of infrastructure assets in South Africa. In the very first report in 2006, the SAICE awarded South Africa a D+ overall and in spite of the 2010 World Cup rebuild programme, little has changed since. The 2011 overall grade is a C-, ie half way between ‘acceptable although stressed' and ‘not coping with demand'.

"The focused investment over the past five years has resulted in more new infrastructure and an improvement in the condition of some existing assets. However, infrastructure at municipal level remains poor and is deteriorating in many places. Further, the resilience of all new and previously existing infrastructure is questionable without a much improved commitment to maintenance," reads the grade comment in the pocket sized summary report.

National roads, airports, freight rail networks and commercial ports are lifted out as success stories with improved scores of B, B+, B+ and B- respectively. Particularly poor, however, are: water, D- for rural infrastructure and the Department of Water Affairs; sanitation, a lower than low E- for Water Affairs; roads, E for gravel roads to C- for paved metropolitan roads; electricity, D for local distribution networks; healthcare, with falling infrastructure scores of D+ and D for school healthcare and clinics; and schools themselves, which have improved to score D+. The relatively well funded and independently run agencies, SANRAL, ACSA and the National Ports Authority, for example, are much healthier than the municipal, provincial and state-run ones - but none of this is new or surprising.

The SAICE Infrastructure report also has this to say about us South African consumers: "Users do not pay anywhere near the real costs of water treatment and supply, electricity supply, or waste management services, and this encourages high levels of wastage and civic disrespect for and neglect of infrastructure."

I am a great admirer of the LeadSA campaign and in particular of its message of responsibility. We all have the tendency towards blame and an ability to distance ourselves from any participation in human-induced damage to the world we live in. As a natural response to life's petty frustrations, we helplessly throw up our arms or point our fingers at poorly performing municipalities, water polluting mines, or any process that involves the combustion of coal. LeadSA, by associating our rights with responsibilities, I believe, may be pointing towards a way out of this endless blame-dodging trap.

A highlight of this month's issue of MechTech was my visit to Absa Towers West in the Johannesburg CBD and its new energy centre. Absa's investment, in people, time, creativity, energy and money, demonstrates a willingness to apply the idea of being a responsible corporate citizen. As Hope Mashele, Absa's manager for engineering and energy, says: "This is a project on a commercially sensible scale, not a pilot plant, but a real inner-city power generation facility. The combination of green building principles, cleaner energy solutions, waste thermal energy use and ongoing energy management means that this project makes long term business sense - and being a bank, Absa knows about business sense."

The Absa energy centre demonstrates very clearly the viability of private off-grid energy solutions. It sends a clear message to those of us throwing our arms up in despair that we can make a real difference to our communities if we are prepared to stop waiting for the state to provide. Both private individuals and corporate citizens can, by adopting an attitude of respect towards infrastructure and responsibility towards waste, can make a significant difference to our national score card.

State institutions have responsibilities too, and I believe they should be held accountable for their shortcomings. But responsibility is a character trait and it needs to permeate though every aspect of a society's character. Our new Consumer Protection Act implies that we consumers of services (or users of infrastructure) have rights and the service providers are those with responsibilities.

Every household in the country is capable of saving water and electricity and therefore reducing the pressure on our ailing infrastructure. Households and businesses alike can all improve attitudes towards maintenance: fixing leaks in taps, compressed air lines or hydraulic hoses, for example. We can all also begin to follow Absa's lead and invest in infrastructure to cater for our own needs: solar water heaters, water recycling systems; gas heaters and, for corporates, technologies that make better use of waste energy.

It makes business sense to become a nation of responsible private people and companies, a nation that supports the institutions of state instead of the cheap and wasteful consumers described in the SAICE report.

Download the IRC-pocketversion-1r.

Peter Middleton