Suchergebnisse

This article looks at the town engineers in South Africa prior to Union in 1910. It briefly examines the growth in the number of municipalities and town engineers in the country in this period and investigates the background and training of these engineers; why municipalities decided to appoint an engineer; and what kind of appointment processes were followed. Finally the relations between engineers and town councils and the prevailing circumstances at the end of the engineers' tenures is studied. The article also presents ten specific cases which have reference to the development of water supply. It emerges that most early town engineers received training via apprenticeship for the positions they held, and that there was added pressure from elected councillors in municipalities who were prone to monitor assiduously how officials were spending public money. It is also clear that engineers who did not have earlier municipal experience were bound to have problems in their interaction with town councillors.Keywords: Municipal history, civil engineering, water supply, sanitation, Cape Colony, Natal, Orange Free State, TransvaalDisciplines: History, Engineering, Public Management

The first town engineers in the area of current South Africa were appointed in the 1850s in Cape Town, Grahamstown and Pietermaritzburg. This book examines these first town engineers and their successors until the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910. The focus of the study is on the engineers themselves; who were they; what their background was; where they came from and where they went. It is not so much about what they did but what their relationship with town councils and other municipal decision makers was. The study looks also at the appointment process and the reasons why municipalities decided to appoint town engineer at the first place. The study constructs first the chronological sequence of events and then looks at the various aspects systematically. From these analyses is built a picture of a municipal official with a precarious position at the mercy of money-minded town councillors. In many cases town engineers were made scapegoats of unpopular decisions made by councillors. Only in a few cases could a town engineer survive these confrontations. Although the book deals with engineers, reading this book does not require any special knowledge of engineering. It is aimed to those who are interested in the working of the municipal government and the roles of individual officials in it.

This paper examines the history of the first town engineers in the Transvaal before the Union. It will briefly examine the changes in local government in the Transvaal, focusing on municipal engineers. Examination is made of the selection processes applied in their appointments and the circumstances at the end of their tenures. It explores what was expected of municipal engineers during this period; shows what their position within the municipal structure was; and explains how vague their job description was in relation to their wide field of operation. The development of the engineer's position in the municipal management hierarchy is interesting. He was an important figure in local government, had specific responsibilities and enjoyed specific powers. It emerges that most early town engineers had training via apprenticeship for the positions they held and that there was added pressure from elected councillors in municipalities who were prone to assiduously monitor how officials were spending public money.Keywords:Municipal history, civil engineering, water supply, sanitation, Transvaal,Benoni, Boksburg, Germiston, Heidelberg, Johannesburg, Klerksdorp, Krugersdorp, Pietersburg, Potchefstroom, Pretoria, Standerton, Volksrust Disciplines:History, Engineering, Public Management

Environmental health had its modern-day roots in the sanitation and public health movement of the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century. The field addresses all human health-related aspects of both the natural environment and the built environment. In this article the focus is on issues of safe water and sanitation in Cape Town, Grahamstown, Durban and Johannesburg in the period ]840-1920. At the time the introduction and augmentation of water supply and sanitary reform were among the most important municipal issues to be addressed, along with the reduction of fire risks and the establishment of a financially effective administration. The links between health, racial segregation and differences in the provision of municipal services are also discussed in some detail. It will be shown that in conducting their work, local officials, together with the colonial authorities, set up a framework for local administration that was similar to governance structures in the UK. However, there were certainly unique elements in the evolution of local governments in South Africa. ; http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/hist/v55n1/v55n1a06.pdf

Environmental health had its modern-day roots in the sanitation and public health movement of the United Kingdom in the nineteenth century. The field addresses all human health-related aspects of both the natural environment and the built environment. In this article the focus is on issues of safe water and sanitation in Cape Town, Grahamstown, Durban and Johannesburg in the period 1840–1920. At the time the introduction and augmentation of water supply and sanitary reform were among the most important municipal issues to be addressed, along with the reduction of fire risks and the establishment of a financially effective administration. The links between health, racial segregation and differences in the provision of municipal services are also discussed in some detail. It will be shown that in conducting their work, local officials, together with the colonial authorities, set up a framework for local administration that was similar to governance structures in the UK. However, there were certainly unique elements in the evolution of local governments in South Africa ; Omgewingsgesondheid het sy hedendaagse oorsprong in die openbare gesondheidssbeweging van Brittanje in die negentiende eeu gehad. Hierdie betrokke terrein ondersoek gesondheidsgebaseerde aspekte van die natuurlike en beboude omgewing. In hierdie artikel is die fokus op kwessies van veilige drinkwater en sanitasie in Kaapstad, Grahamstad, Durban en Johannesburg in die tydperk c. 1840–1920. In hierdie era het die aanvulling van die bestaande watervoorrade en saniteitshervorming prominent in munisipale kringe ter sprake gekom. Daar was ook kwessies rondom risikovermindering in gevalle van stedelike brand-insidente. Terselfdertyd het plaaslike owerhede daarna gestreef om hulle finansies goed te bestuur en administrasie te verbeter. Die skakels tussen gesondheid, rassesegregasie en verskille in die voorsiening van munisipale dienste word ook bespreek. Daar word aangedui dat amptenare in samewerking met die koloniale owerhede daarin geslaag het om 'n raamwerk vir plaaslike regering daar te stel wat met soortgelyke stelsels in die Verenigde Koninkryk ooreengestem het. Tog wil dit ook voorkom asof Suid- Afrikaanse omstandighede ook vereis het dat voorsiening vir die ontwikkeling van 'n unieke stelsel gemaak word

Mäen tutkimuksen pääkohde on se, kuinka vesiongelma ratkaistiin ja vesihallinto luotiin neljässä eteläafrikkalaisessa kaupungissa: Kapkaupungissa, Grahamstownissa, Durbanissa ja Johannesburgissa. Mäki selvittää vesihuollon sekä veden hankinnan ja viemäröinnin kehitystä, hallintotapoja sekä valittuja teknologisia ratkaisuja ja niiden vaikutusta kehitykseen. Vesihuollon ja kaupungistumisen muodostamaa ongelmakenttää tutkitaan ympäristöhistorian näkökulmasta pyrkien synteesiin siitä, miten veden ja terveyden ongelmat on ratkaistu tutkimuskohteissa. Tutkimuksen pääkysymys on, kuinka vesihuolto ja -hallinto ratkaistiin neljässä eri aikoina ja erilaisiin ympäristöihin perustetussa kaupungissa. Entä mitkä olivat tehtyjen ratkaisujen vaikutukset kaupunkikehitykseen ja ympäristöön? Valitut kaupungit edustavat erilaisia maantieteellisiä alueita, väestörakenteita, ja vielä 1800-luvun lopulla kolmea erillistä poliittista yksikköä. Mäen tutkimus valaisee omasta näkökulmastaan paikallishallinnon toimintaa ja sen kykyä vastata väestön tarpeisiin taistelussa kaupungistumisen ongelmia vastaan. Monissa Aasian ja Afrikan kaupungeissa kamppaillaan edelleen näiden samojen ongelmien kanssa. Rotukysymyksen ja sen vaikutusten pohtiminen muodostaa oman osa-alueensa Mäen tutkimuksessa. Erityisesti rotukysymys näkyy terveysongelmien kohdalla. Kaupungeissa esiintyi säännöllisesti vakavia epidemioita. Afrikkalaisten asuinalueita pidettiin tautipesäkkeinä, ja tätä käytettiin lääketieteellisenä perusteluna rotuerottelulle. Taudit eivät kuitenkaan suostuneet noudattamaan rotu- tai luokkarajoja, ja tämän vuoksi päädyttiin siihen, että afrikkalaisten terveydestä piti huolehtia valkoisten suojelemiseksi. Tämä tarkoitti useimmiten puhtaan juomaveden toimittamista afrikkalaisille. Tätä ongelmaa ei alueella ole vieläkään saatu ratkaistua; edellisestä vakavasta koleraepidemiasta Etelä-Afrikassa ei ole kovin monta vuotta. Mäen tutkimus pohjautuu laajaan ja monipuoliseen lähdeaineistoon, jonka rungon muodostavat arkistoaineiston rinnalla viranomaisten tuottamat erilaiset raportit ja suunnitelmat. Aikalaisnäkökulmaa oloihin ja ongelmiin on haettu paikallisista sanomalehdistä ja aikalaiskirjallisuudesta. Tutkimuksessa esitetään kokonaiskuva niistä eri tekijöistä, jotka vaikuttivat vesihuollon muotoutumiseen neljässä esimerkkikaupungissa ja merkitsee uutta avausta vähän käsitellyssä aiheessa Etelä-Afrikan urbanisoitumisen historian tutkimuksessa. Tutkimuksen perusteella merkittävimmiksi vesihuollon kehitystä määrittäviksi tekijöiksi nousevat väestönkasvu, kuntatalouden rajoitukset, rotuasenteet sekä alan ammattilaisten eli kaupungininsinöörien ja kaupunginlääkärien rooli. Voimakkaan väestönkasvun aiheuttamat paineet näkyivät kolmessa neljästä esimerkkitapauksesta jatkuvana tarpeena lisätä tarjolla olevan veden määrää sekä myöhemmin tarpeena saada näin lisääntyneet jätevedet kuljetettua pois. Kuntatalous aiheutti rajoituksia siihen, mitä suunnitelmia pystyttiin toteuttamaan ja milloin. Selkeimmin tämä näkyi Grahamstownissa, jossa vesiviemäröinti kyettiin toteuttamaan vasta 1930-luvulla. Myös rotuasenteet vaikuttivat vesi- ja jätevesihuollon infrastruktuurin kehittymiseen kaupungeissa. Infrastruktuuri levisi ensiksi valkoisten asuttamille alueille ja vasta sen jälkeen, jos sittenkään, muille alueille. Vaikka varsinkin mustien katsottiin levittävän erilaisia tautiepidemioita, niin heidän asuinolojensa parantamista ei katsottu tarpeelliseksi. Varsin yleisesti oli vallalla käsitys, etteivät mustat käsittäneet nykyaikaisen hygienian vaatimuksia. Tämän vuoksi pidettiin oleellisena siirtää heidät pois valkoisten asuinalueiden läheltä, jotta kaupunkikuva parantuisi. Myös kaupungininsinöörien ja kaupunginlääkärien asemalla oli tutkimuksen perusteella merkittävä vaikutus vesihuollon kehitykseen. Grahamstownissa näiden kunnallisten virkamiesten vaikutusvalta oli varsin olematon verrattuna kaupunginhallitukseen, kun taas vastaavasti Durbanissa kaupungininsinööri sai läpi lähes kaikki esityksensä. Samoin oli tilanne Johannesburgissa 1900-luvun alussa: kaupunginlääkärin asema oli niin vahva, ettei hänen näkemyksiään sivuutettu. Kaiken kaikkiaan Etelä-Afrikan tilannetta 1800-luvun lopulla voidaan verrata nykyiseen tilanteeseen. Alueelle saapui siirtolaisia Euroopasta ja Aasiasta sekä mustia työn perässä maaseudulta kaupunkeihin. Tämä kaupungistuminen aiheutti paineita infrastruktuurista vastaaville viranomaisille. Taloja ja teitä piti rakentaa sekä tuottaa palveluita, joista tärkeimpiä olivat vesi- ja jätevesipalvelut. Samoin nykyisessä Etelä-Afrikassa kaupungit kasvavat muualta Afrikasta tulevista siirtolaisista ja köyhistä maalaisista, jotka muuttavat paremman elämän toivossa kaupunkeihin. Viranomaisten ongelmat ovat edelleen samat kuin sata vuotta sitten, eli toimivan infrastruktuurin rakentaminen ja tarvittavien palveluiden takaaminen. Ajat ovat muuttuneet, mutta nykyään vesi- ja jätevesipalvelut nähdään yleisesti ihmisen perustarpeina. Historia ei välttämättä toista itseään, mutta silti on mahdollista oppia siitä mitä on tapahtunut aiemmin, varsinkin tehdyistä virheistä. Johannesburgin vesihuollosta vuoteen 1905 vastanneen yhtiön pitäisi olla varoittava esimerkki niille, jotka vaativat yksityistämistä ratkaisuksi vesihuollon ongelmiin. Etelä-Afrikan kaltaisessa maassa, jossa vettä ei ole tuhlattavaksi asti, on erityisen tärkeää ymmärtää miten nykyiseen tilanteeseen on tultu. ; As society has developed the importance of the clean water and the removal of the wastewater has increased. At the same time it has become a point of dispute between various actors. In a more general level, water has also a civilising role; both running water and water closet has been already long considered as an indispensable condition for modern society. Water is perhaps the most important natural substance in our daily life. It is a fundamental prerequisite for working of a human body, without it we would dry up and perish. Without it the surrounding world would loose its vitality. Water, however, is a commodity that is scantily available, only 0,644 per cent of the water in Earth s surface layer is in liquid form and from this 99 per cent is under the surface. Water is difficult to obtain, especially in drier parts of Africa. In case of South Africa consciousness of the lack of water and its general scarcity are forcing the government to pay increasingly attention to more careful water consumption and distribution. United Nations had said that the lack of clean drinking water and shortages in sanitation are the biggest problem in the world at the moment. The main objective of this research is how the water related problems and the creation of the water management was solved in four South African towns, Cape Town, Grahamstown, Durban, and Johannesburg. In this research the development of the water supply and acquisition and sewerage, the patterns of governance, and the technological choices made and their impacts are studied. The field of the water supply and urbanization is studied from the viewpoint of the environmental history at the same time aiming to the synthesis of how the problems of the water and the health were solved. The main question of this study is: How was the water supply and governance solved in these four cities, which were established in different time periods and in different environments? What were the effects of the decisions made for the city development and the environment? In the section on water management, I examine the question that is still today critical in many developing countries, namely: Should water supply and management be a private or public enterprise? There are examples of both approaches in the four cities that form the focus of this study. Why, for example, did Johannesburg end up with a partially private company? The examination of the race question and its effects would be a sub-field of its own. The issue of race is the most visible in health questions. There were serious epidemics in the towns regularly. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Africans were considered the carriers of disease. This perception was then used as a major reason to justify the policy of segregation. Diseases, however, did not follow racial or class divisions. Because of this, the conclusion was that to protect Whites they also had to take, at least minimal, care of the health of the Africans. This required delivery of clean drinking water to all the inhabitants. This problem is still partly unsolved. There still are cholera outbreaks in South Africa; for instance 2000 2001 in Kwazulu-Natal and 2003 2004 in Mpumalanga. These case cities were selected because they are situated in different spatial localities. They also have diverse local ethnic compositions. Moreover, in historical terms they were subject to different systems of political governance in local, colonial and national contexts. Cape Town is the oldest European-style urban node in South Africa. The first iron water pipes and taps were installed as early as 1811. Grahamstown was founded in 1812 as a military camp. Being situated inland, its problems with water management differed from those in the Cape Town. Durban was established in 1824 as Port Natal in the eastern coast of South Africa, where the acquisition of water was not a problem. Johannesburg is the youngest of the case cities. It suddenly sprung up in the South African Republic after the first gold discoveries in the early 1880s. Its multi-cultural inhabitants and location, 70 kilometres, from the nearest major river, posed a unique challenge to water supply services. This comparative study of how these cities solved their water supply and related environmental and health problems illustrates the working of municipal administrations and their abilities to respond to the needs of citizens in the battle against the problems of urbanization. In many Asian and African towns, they are still facing the same problems that the cities selected for this research experienced when they were building their water supply. Obviously today, South Africa is an advanced country when considering the effectiveness of water supply and the quality of water; you can drink tap water, which is not the case in most other countries. The research is based on wide and many-sided source material, the core of which is based on archival material and different plans and reports of officials. There is also contemporary viewpoint based on local newspapers and contemporary literature. The research presents an over-all picture of the various factors that influenced the development of water supply in four case cities in South Africa. It is, also, a new opening in a little research area of South African urban history. Based on the research, population growth, the limitations of municipal financing, racial attitudes, and the role of local professionals, town engineers and medical officers of health, are the most important factors in the development of water supply. The pressures of strong population growth can be seen in three cases as a constant need to augment the amount of delivered water, and later as a need to get rid of increasing amounts of waste water. Municipal financing put limitations to what plans could be realised and when. This can be seen most clearly in Grahamstown. For instance, waterborne sewerage system could be built there only in 1830s. Racial attitudes influenced the development of the water supply and sewerage infrastructure in the citi! es. At first the infrastructure was built in the areas inhabited by the whites, and only later, if even then, in the other areas. Although it was a common assumption that the black were spreading various diseases, it was not thought necessary to improve their housing conditions. It was a quite common assumption that the blacks could not understand the necessities of a modern hygiene. Because of this the essential method for improving the city view was the removal of the blacks from the neighbourhood of the white areas. Also the status of town engineers and medical officers of health had an important impact on the development of the water supply according to this research. In Grahamstown their influence was quite nonexistent compared to the influence of the city council. In Durban the town engineer got nearly all his plans approved. In Johannesburg in the early 20th century the position of the local medical officer of health was so strong that his opinions could not be bypassed. All-in-all, the situation in South Africa in the late 19th century can be compared to the current situation. Cities in South Africa were growing with immigrants coming from Europe and Asia and with Africans moving into cities for work. This urbanization process put many pressures on the municipal officials responsible for the city infrastructure. More houses and roads had to be built, different kinds of services had to be offered amongst which water and sanitary services were of vital importance. In South Africa today cities are growing with immigrants coming from neighbouring countries and with poor people seeking a better life than can be achieved from the countryside. The problems the city officials are still facing are identical, the building of a working infrastructure and the guarantee to provide the needed services. The times had been changing but nowadays water and proper sanitary services are recognized universally as basic human necessities. History does not necessarily repeat itself but at least it is possible to learn from what has happened earlier and learn from these mistakes. The example of the Johannesburg Waterworks Company, for example, should be a warning to those demanding privatization as a solution for problems related to water supply. In a water scarce country such as South Africa, it is particularly important to understand the history of their water supply.

This paper examines the history of the first town engineers in Johannesburg and Pretoria by looking at the selection process that was applied in their appointment; their responsibilities; and the circumstances at the end of their tenures. It explores what was expected of municipal engineers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; shows how weak their position was within the municipal structure; and explains how vague their job description was in relation to their wide field of operation. It becomes clear that most early town engineers had no formal training for the positions they held and that there was added pressure from elected councillors in both municipalities who were prone to follow assiduously how officials were spending public money.

This paper describes the technological development of wells and toilets and the cultural practices related to them in two countries, South Africa and Finland, from the Middle Ages to modern times. Wells and toilets have always been linked to the well-being of humans and they still are the most common technical systems in the service of mankind. They are simple to build, but if they are constructed improperly or stop functioning properly, they may endanger the health of both humans and the environment. The solutions used for getting clean water or for disposal of excrement have always been a matter of life and death for human settlements. Located on opposite sides of the world, the climate and natural resources of South Africa and Finland are very different. However, surprisingly similar solutions, for example wind turbines to pump water, have been used in rural areas. Furthermore, urbanization and industrialization occurred in both countries at approximately the same time in the 19th century, which caused increasing environmental problems in Finnish and South African urban areas. The transition to modern water supply and waste disposal systems was a very demanding process for municipal administrations in both countries.

Water really does matter: presently some 1.2 billion people do not have access to clean water and more than 2.6 billion lack access to proper sanitation. Water-borne diseases cause the death of five to six million people in developing countries each year ­ some fifteen thousand a day! Enormous efforts will be needed to meet the set goal of wider access to water and sanitation. In the last 10 years more children have died from diarrhoea than all the people lost in armed conflicts since WWII. Improved water and sanitation services have many positive direct and indirect effects on public health and the national economy. Healthier people living to adulthood increase human resources and ultimately the productivity and well-being of nations. Besides, as regards the various water use purposes, a recent study showed that community water supply should be the first priority in all societies. The United Nations General Assembly declared the period of 2005-2015 as the International Water Decade to raise awareness and to galvanise people into action for better management and protection of our most crucial resource. "Water matters" is what the UN said in 2002. Through the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, countries have committed themselves to the millennium target ­ to halve the proportion of people lacking access to clean water and proper sanitation by 2015. Enormous efforts will be needed to meet the goal. How can it be achieved? Lessons learned from earlier industrialised and urbanised societies might help us understand the present crisis. This book is based on the multidisciplinary research project "Governance of water and environmental services in long-term perspectives (GOWLOP) ­ A Comparative Study" funded by the Academy of Finland (project number 210816). The study explores the long-term development of the relationships between water supply and sanitation, environmental health, and social change in a global context with a special focus on Kenya, Nepal, South Africa and Finland. The general objective of the project was to enhance our knowledge and understanding of the development of water use, water supply, water pollution control and sanitation services, and their overall long-term political, economic, social, cultural, technological, environmental and health impacts. The study aimed to explain the strategic decisions made over the years and to identify the key drivers ­- strategies, principles and practices ­ which have resulted in historically significant changes in public health and overall development of community water supply and sanitation services, their governance, social importance and impacts during two urbanisation periods in Africa (Kenya, South Africa), Asia (Nepal) and Europe (Finland). Some key findings of the GOWLOP project are presented in this book.