Monday, 18 October 2010

On Saturday there was a sad farewell because team two was going back to the Netherlands.  They will be back on the 14/11/2010.
 
After a relaxing weekend it was time to get into the actual planning of the project.  Simone created a comprehensive communications plan. While Carlo & Alexander had a very informative meeting with Michael Wells from the municipality about the MIS.
We also welcomed Jan Prinsen from Water Schap Vallei & Eem from Holland.  The next few days is going to be very busy with Pam & Simone identifying potential funders for the project. 

From the left: Marcel Rep (Imtech Infra), Jan Prinsen (Water Schap Vallei & Eem) De Vos (Dutch Embassador to South Africa) & Pauline Woolthuis (Dutch Embassy in South Africa)

Friday 15 October 2010

Friday, 15 October 2010

Our morning started of by a very informative presentation by Nikkie Alexander on our trip to the water works yesterday.  Nikki’s presentation quite clearly outlined the waste / clean water process.

The second part of the morning took us to the offices of the Gert Sibande District Municipality.  Michael Wells the director of Water & Sanitation briefly outlined the municipal functions, role & responsibilities.

The meeting was also attended by Deon Nel from a the company Waterworks who is also a consultant to the Netherlands Embassy, Henry Chetty from the Department of Water as well as Mpho Mokhoabane a senior technician from the Gert Sibande District.

In the afternoon a task list was outlined by the team, giving us now a very definite outlook on this project.

Thursday 14-10-2010

This morning we left early, at 5:30 from Johannesburg to Secunda. Secunda lies in the Gert Sibande District. The Gert Sibande District Municipality is one of the three district municipalities in Mpumalanga province. We met there our contact person Michael Wells and then drove on to a place called Pixley Ka Seme.
Michael Wells is the director of Water & Sanitation from the Gert Sibande District Municipality.

After the meeting we left with Michael to take a look at some sewage treatmant plants and water treatmant plants. We drove all day to see all the plants from the District. We did see the plants from Amersfoort, Volksrust, Vukuzakhe, Perdekop and Wakkerstroom.

Today we could see with our own eyes what the problems are and what to expect. The team learned a lot this day from the knowledge of Nikki.
After a long day we had a lovely dinner in a Swiss restaurant. A little bit of Europe after all.

Sign our petition to bring clean, safe water to millions

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

Day four, was a day filled with meetings in the beautiful part of Rosebank, Johannesburg. We can see why this area is called Rosebank, see photo below.

The first meeting was at Khulisa.  Khulisa is an organisation which provides education, training & personal development in communities, schools, places of safety and correctional facilities.  Khulisa tackles crime holistically, working at all levels of the crime cycle – preventing crime, diverting youth from the criminal justice system, providing alternatives to imprisonment, fostering personal transformation for those who are in prison, and assisting with their transition back into society.  Khulisa helps families and communities to support victims who need healing and offenders who want to make a difference.

We also visited their training center where they teach past offenders to make items out of recycled products, eg: paper, pipes etc.

Pam Naidoo & Alexander van Berne

Bench made from a recycled water pipe

 The second part of today was spent at the offices of Kessels & Smit, the learning company.  Here we were briefed on the Gert Sibande District Municipality.  There is alot of work involved & I know that our team will enjoy this challenge.

We have to have an early night as we are leaving at 05H30 to Secunda which is about two hours away from Johannesburg.

The fabulous Imtech team from the left:
Christophe van den Bossche, Simone Lining, Pam Naidoo, Carlo Abbing, Nikki Alexander, Mark van Erp & Alexander van Berne



Tuesday, 12 October 2010

„Speeded up a team“

Staying here in South Africa since 3 days we’ve gotten so much impressions about the “South African way of living”: poor-rich-middle.

With the background of this little view on people’s daily life, generally concerning the water situation, we started today in the morning from Pretoria to Johannesburg and it should be

the start in a day which can describe as a “journey back to your own”.

After a renewed discussion about the presentation of the Prof of the University of Pretoria everybody has given a statement what contribution in helping people can be personally.

One great step for growing together as a team is “lived tolerance” and respect for all opinions without condemn anyone. If we want to be tolerant and also respect the culture of the South African people we had to start by ourselves. Already on Sunday Mark told us in Pretoria about the “Heroic Journey” based on an idea of Nelson Mandela and he gave us the assignment preparing our individually “Heroic Journey”for today as a flip-chart drawing:



Home – Quest – Test – Shift – Gift


Later we’ve visited the “Constitution Court” as a symbolic building overcoming the Apartheid and installing democracy structures. The architecture of the courtyard building has shown this in an impressive way: Some old building parts as a symbol of the passed history existing together with a new modern and inviting architecture. While visiting this we’ve made another important step growing together in a time by interviewing a partner of his talent and what he’s proud on it. In that last meeting of an impressive and intense way you get an insight for a short small moment on everybody’s self-understanding.Hearing from each other their “Heroic Journey” and speaking of his own was a very intense moment. In explaining the drawing it was a great opening of himself or herself, cause the way automatically has reflected of what you’ve done or what has gone wrong and what you learned from this passed situation. The essence of them could be the gift, a gift also to South Africa, not only to your own way of life.

Coming out and will be further on open minded in and for a group of foreign people is one of the most successful way “growing together in a team” in a short time.

Monday 11th October 2010

This morning we started out for a visit around the area to meet a number of different people living in various places.  The object of the day was to see how people living in different situations were able to have water and dispose of their waste water.

The first place we visited was a township. This was followed by a visit to a shanty town and a high status area.  Following this we visited a middle class area and had a look around the houses.

When looking at the upper and middle class the water supply and sanitation appears to be comparable to the European standard with proper water supply and flushing toilets.  However when you visit the less fortunate the situation is entirely different.  On visiting the shacks one realises that our standards should not be taken for granted.

There was a refreshing determination at the shack area.  The people had all settled there illegally and they had nowhere else to go.  However they had cleared areas for their houses, a park, an area to grow crops and a place for animals to live.  They had a borehole installed for their water supply and this pumped water to some tanks high on the hill.  It then flowed under gravity to some taps in the area.  There where pit latrines for most houses and they were in a clean condition.

The other township areas were also kept clean and tidy around the houses.  There was a problem with refuse though, and this was collected in big piles which were then set on fire.  This was not good for the environment and the waste blew into nearby rivers and streams.
The more expensive housing had more European type facilities and they appeared to have a refuse collection as their houses were better kept.  This was probably a function of financial status.

The rich community was visited by another part of the group. And, although they had swimming pools and better facilities, they were well aware of the problems encountered by others for their water supply and sanitation.

Arrival Saturday & Sunday

Yesterday we started our mission in Amsterdam.  The Boost Teams had two different flights: one flight went directly to Johannesburg, the other flight via Nairobi to Johannesburg.  A taxi took us to our guesthouse in Pretoria.  The last group members arrived at 2:00AM.

This morning we had breakfast at our neighbor, the Coffee House. We sat on a very nice terrace with a beautiful garden. The breakfast existed out of cornflakes, muesli, yoghurt, eggs, bacon and bread. Very nice start of the day, especially for our British team members ;-)

After our breakfast Marc introduced us to the program for the week to come. In the afternoon, we did a exciting session "in the field": interviewing South Africans to learn about their experiences with, and view on climate, water treatment, environment, safety and education. We’ve learned a lot about South Africa and its issues. One thing became clear: there is a lot of work to do on these topics.

Please do keep an eye on our blog. I’ll finish this story with some pictures.