Opinion: For Want Of An Engineer, the Water Was Lost; For Want Of the Water… A Country Was Lost — All For the Want Of An Engineer
South Africa’s failure to supply clean water and sanitation is human-made. It is caused by our inability to elect fit and proper people to govern. Our leadership core is too monolithic and lacks critical skills such as engineering, planning, and understanding of the political economy. Political conversations in South Africa revolve around nationalisation, appropriation, and monopoly capital.
South Africa’s body politic still lingers too much in the past and lacks focus on the future and all aspects that will drive that future, such as technology. For example, machine learning provides various solutions from predictive analysis to manage our supply networks, data analysis to track water consumption and water end-users, and sewage treatment plants or desalination plants.
Learning Curve: Harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution Begins With Education
If we want to grow an inclusive economy, we must build a strong and stable Fourth Industrial Revolution education system, strengthen equality of opportunity, promote innovation and sustainable technologies, and revitalise local and national partnerships.