Civil Engineering nOVEMBER 2021 | Vol 29 No 10

6 November 2021 Civil Engineering CEO' s Corner M any countries may not appreciate the importance of sustainability concepts which are often kept at the policy level. In other instances, institutional arrange- ments, existing practices, bad habits, apathy, and unconscious biases deter the urgency needed to make sustainability real. As confirmed by leaders at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26) we must act now to make meaningful inroads towards sustainability. South Africa is currently unsustainable as a society. This is a common cause for explaining the trajectory of our socio- economic indicators such as poverty, crime, health, education, unemployment, revenue, and inequality, to mention a few. It seems to make sense that a fragmented and siloed approach at the national level will not give the desired effect in favour of a collective, holistic sustainability strategy that drives government leadership on the matter. Leading sustainability across all the verticals in government must become a way of working going forward. It can no longer be considered a standalone initiative as we don’t have the luxury of time to commence with scaled implementation. We need to act now! A LEADERSHIP APPROACH An integrated national leadership approach to sustainability will permeate through the structures while garnering much-needed support from infrastructure agencies, the private sector, NGOs, project funders and civil society bodies. In addition, a holistic approach will serve as a clear sign that government cares. Government – in all forms – has to work towards leading effectively. An expanded national sustainability approach would drive policy changes and, most importantly, commit us all to implementation. A guiding sustainability mindset is aligned to progressing all of our development goals and giving meaningful effect to our strategic objectives as indicated in both our Economic Reconstruction And Recovery Plan and the draft National Infrastructure Plan 2050. Moving away from coal and sulphur seems to be an appropriate starting place that will bring additional funding and debt restruc- turing opportunities. Coal reforms will be a question of stopping one energy source in favour of another over time. Transformation is perhaps an apt description of the methodology to be adopted to bring about changes needed to become sustainable. Such transformation will affect all aspects of our lives in the future which is not fully comprehensible at this time. In addition, more immediate considerations may be illustrated by the recent comments of President Cyril Ramaphosa: At the local government level, we need to integrate climate change considerations into service delivery planning. This needs to be in areas such as the design of human settlements, in energy management through solar water heating for low- income households, and in the use of renewable energy in municipal water and wastewater infrastructure. Several municipalities, notably in KwaZulu-Natal, are already piloting the use of different renewable energy sources such as landfill gas to electricity, biomass, biogas and small- scale hydropower. Last month the City of Cape Town launched the pilot phase of a floating solar power plant at a wastewater treatment works. Recent amendments to electricity regulations that allow municipalities to buy and generate their power are expected to lead to a greater uptake of renewable energy technologies over time. The president’s comment alludes to an ultimate goal of cre- ating sustainable communities in line with SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities). Further examination of this goal reveals concepts of housing for all, transport systems, urban plans, envi- ronment and disaster management including risk mitigation. These concepts have infrastructure solutions. We have to achieve SDG 11 by taking cognisance of the need to progress the targets of SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure) for short- and medium-term gains and SGD 4 (quality education) for medium- to long-term gains. A critical review of the statement suggests that we could have implemented many of these recom- mendations many years ago. ADDRESSING SOUTH AFRICA’S DISCONNECTS South Africa was once a leader in developing strategies, but has since defaulted to adopting a follower approach and, in so doing, leaving our destiny at mercy of global trends and patterns. To become a successful nation that builds itself up again to lead itself out of this quagmire, we need to add wisdom and knowledge to our rich culture and diversity in all tasks. Removing the ego-based grandstanding politics that have fractured society will certainly go a long way in building up the leadership capacity needed to leverage wisdom and allow for the application of knowledge in the developmental areas mentioned in the above excerpt. What is assumed in this state- ment is that government must Sustainability underpinned by infrastructure development and quality education All countries on earth are duty-bound to progress common global sustainability initiatives which will contribute to the continued existence of mankind.