Department of Water Affairs
Having finished my degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Birmingham I departed for South Africa to join the Department of Water Affairs. I spent a year in the Planning Department and then moved to the Canal Directorate mainly pushing water around the country. Spending four years designing structures and earthworks that were being built almost immediately gave me a great grounding in the design process but also in making designs buildable. By the end of the five years I was a Registered Professional Engineer, a Member of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers and a Member of the Institution of Water and Environmental Management.
01
Planning Directorate
My first year began. It was to cover water resources, dam capacities, feasibility and concept designs for weirs and dams and computer flow modelling with most of the information in Afrikaans. It would prove interesting as none of it had been covered in University and I only spoke English. so onwards and upwards!
02
Canal Directorate
03
Canal Directorate
A major scheme I also worked on was the Lower Sundays River Irrigation Scheme consisting of canals, tunnels, a dam and a canal upgrade,