Civil Engineering December 2021 | Vol 29 No 11

50 December 2021 Civil Engineering O n 24 November at Consulting Engineers South Africa’s (CESA) 68 th Annual General Meeting, Olu Soluade was inaugurated as President of the organisation for the next two years. Soluade, who is CEO of AOS Consulting Engineers, takes over from Sugen Pillay. David Leukes from BVi Group has been elected as Deputy President of the organisation. “My aim is to consolidate and build on CESA’s foundation in order for us to continue to drive our focus on partnering with industry stakeholders for sustain- able, value for money infrastructure development that protects the lives and livelihoods of our people,” Soluade said in his acceptance speech. He is a professional engineer and professional construction project manager with over 30-years’ experience and holds a master’s in industrial engineering. In addition to this, he holds the qualification of Accredited Tier Designer Expert from the Uptime Institute in the USA, he is a Green Star Accredited Professional with the Green Building Council of South Africa, a LEED AP (BD+C) with the US Green Building Council, a Certified Data Centre Designer by CNET in the USA, and a Data Centre Energy Practitioner by USA DOE. In 2011, he was one of the Top Black Male Entrepreneur finalists in the Oliver Empowerment Awards. Prior to starting AOS Consulting Engineers in 2008, Soluade held the posi- tion of CEO of another consultancy firm in South Africa. In 2009, AOS Consulting won the Young Company of the Year award at the CESA/Glenrand MIB Engineering Excellence Awards, as well as a number of international awards. As a member of numerous professional bodies, he serves on the membership committee of CESA, is an assessor for the SACPCMP, and was chairman of ECSA’s Mechanical Engineering Professional Advisory Committee for four years. He currently serves as the GAC chair and the president for the ASHRAE South Africa Chapter.  CESA elects new president T he University of Fort Hare (UFH) will undertake two water infrastructure projects at a cost of R130 million that will benefit students, residents and the economy of Alice in the Eastern Cape. The UFH Alice campus has been experiencing water problems for several years, exacerbated by the recent construction of a new student village, necessitating an upgrade of the existing water treatment works (WTW). Similarly, the existing wastewater treatment works (WWTW) is operating above maximum capacity. This, together with an expected increase in effluent owing to the soon to be upgraded WTW, requires that the WWTW also be upgraded. The university will act as the project implementation agent and will be respon- sible for the appointment of the profes- sional service providers and contractors to successfully deliver the project funded by the Department of Higher Education and Training. A project steering committee will be established, chaired by UFH’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Institutional Support, Dr Oscar van Heerden. The Amathole District and Raymond Mhlaba Municipalities will also be part of the committee. The treatment capacity of the WTW will be upgraded from 0.93 million m 3 to 2.9 million m 3 per year, and a new 4 Mℓ reservoir will be constructed to improve water supply to the campus. The treatment capacity of the WWTW will be upgraded from 2 Mℓ/day to 4 Mℓ/day. Both treatment works are planned to be operational by 31 March 2023. “Upon completion, the UFH Alice campus will have a more reliable water supply with adequate pressure and a sewerage treatment works that can treat the effluent from both the town of Alice and UFH. The increased capacity of the WWTW will provide for an increase in treated water for agricultural purposes and for effluent discharged into the river that is compliant to environmental standards and regulations,” says Dr Van Heerden. “Under the direction of the institu- tion’s new strategic plan, major infra- structure projects will be undertaken over the next decade as part of the UFH’s renewal and restoration,” adds UFH Vice- Chancellor, Professor Sakhela Buhlungu. “The primary focus is to improve student experience and to provide high- quality teaching facilities, as UFH’s in- frastructure has fallen behind compared to other urban and new greenfields rural universities in South Africa.”  UFH announces R130 million water infrastructure project for Alice New CESA President Olu Soluade R130 million water infrastructure upgrades are planned for Alice