Civil Engineering July 2022 | Vol 30 No 6

10 July 2022 Civil Engineering N eil is likely best known for his tenure as Head of Water and Sanitation at eThekwini Municipality from 1992 to 2014 and his role as an independent expert consulting on Cape Town’s ‘Day Zero’ drought, but his CV boasts many achievements. Neil has served as an Independent Director of the Toilet Board Coalition, Director of the Umgeni Water Board, Director of the Municipal Infrastructure Investment Unit, Director and Board Chair of Sanergy, and worked on Water Research Commission Steering Committees, among many other notable positions. In addition to being an Honorary Fellow of SAICE, he is an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Municipal Engineers of Southern Africa (IMESA), a Senior Fellow of the Water Institute of South Africa (WISA), a Fellow of the International Water Association (IWA), and a Fellow of the South African Academy of Engineering (SAAE). In 2015 he was also selected as one of Water and Wastewater International’s top 25 industry leaders. Neil currently works as an independent consultant to the World Bank, the South African Government, and others. Martin Gambrill, who worked with Neil for over 10 years while serving as Lead Water and Sanitation Specialist at the World Bank, describes his him as an “engineer extraordinaire” with an interna- tional standing that is second to none. “Neil has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the water and sanitation sector – not only in his native South Africa but, thankfully for those of us working in the sector, also across the globe. Neil’s work to provide safely man- aged water supply and sanitation services to underprivileged communities is fully aligned with the targets of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, generally, and SDG6 in particular. In fact, were his approach to be more generally replicated across the world, it would provide the in- ternational community with hope that the SDG6 targets could actually be achieved by 2030,” says Martin. EWS: LEAVING A LEGACY “I think every engineer wants to leave their monuments, and as a young engineer I built my monuments and enjoyed that time in my life, and I then got into man- agement and ended up leading an amazing team of dedicated professionals at eThekwini Water and Sanitation (EWS),” says Neil. At the time, South Africa was under- going its transformation into a democracy, and Neil was given a mammoth challenge: a metro of 3 million people, of which 1 million had no water and sanitation services and another 1 million had very poor services. It was during this time that Neil pioneered the concept of free basic water, which was introduced in eThekwini in the late 1990s and ultimately became national policy. “To do something that becomes a national policy and that means that people can access water was to me quite a feat, especially as an engineer,” says Neil. “The story of EWS was innovation. We set up focus groups and user platforms, segmented the market and did all the things that private businesses do to im- prove customer relations. We put in a call centre that had world class response times and we prided ourselves on the fact that we had 90% of calls answered in 30 seconds. We engaged with our customers. “On the technology side we introduced water management devices, and I brought in plastic water meters, which were not permitted up until that time because it was thought that they would not survive our harsh sunshine. This led to the replacement of all brass water meters,” continues Neil. “I was fortunate in that I had a mayor, Obed Mlaba, who was very supportive. He told me to run the business while he dealt with the politics, and it was so refreshing. There were very clear delineations. They set us tough targets and we had to deliver, Prof i le Neil Macleod awarded WFEO Medal for Engineering Excellence Former SAICE President Neil Macleod (Pr Eng, HFSAICE) has been chosen as the Laureate of the WFEO Medal for Engineering Excellence – something he describes as a great honour and a big surprise. Neil Macleod, recipient of the WFEO Medal for Engineering Excellence “I think every engineer wants to leave their monuments, and as a young engineer I built my monuments and enjoyed that time in my life, and I then got into management and ended up leading an amazing team of dedicated professionals at eThekwini Water and Sanitation (EWS).”