Pretoria – The Water Affairs Department says its move to acquire additional engineers from Cuba to assist in South Africa’s water infrastructure will not disadvantage local engineers.
Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa on Monday signed a bilateral agreement on water resources management and water supply with Cuba. At the event, Molewa said the department and the National Institute of Water Resources of Cuba have worked tirelessly to develop and agree on areas of cooperation between the two countries.
“We value the Cuban expertise, which has proven itself over time, to address some of the challenges confronting our water resources management systems,” Molewa said.
Speaking to SAnews today, ministry spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said the agreement did not mean South Africa doesn’t have skilled water engineers.
“Cuba and South Africa have relations and agreements in a very broad way and within those agreements - there are many sectors and ours with them is with the water sector,” Ratau said.
“Looking at our challenges with skills and capacity, we then looked at how Cuba can assist us because they have the expertise that we think can help us… So based on a number of things, we thought that they may come here and share with us their expertise - we do it with many countries.”
Ratau said while South Africa had scientists and water engineers, the number of graduates from university was not coming up as quickly as it should. – SAnews.gov.za
