Charles is a professional engineer and management consultant with 27 years experience in civil engineering, water supply and sanitation program development, and management.
He started his career at Ghana Water Company Limited, the utility serving Ghana. He began as the urban planning and development water supply engineer and was promoted to Project and Regional Engineer. His responsibilities included the development of new and existing water supply systems and operations of the regional water utility services.
Charles is currently the Managing Director of Bhekans Services Ltd, a private consulting firm, working in urban water supply and sanitation services. He also collaboratively works as an associate consultant with several international and local consulting firms.
Charles has worked on water supply projects in Nigeria and Liberia which involved engineering design, construction supervision and contract management of water supply and sanitation projects worth several millions of US dollars.
He has attended workshops on operation and management of urban and rural water supply services, and presented research papers on treatment, operations and management of urban water supply services.
Charles has BSc Civil Engineering from KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana; a professional certificate in Urban Supply and Water Loss Management in Germany; and an MBA – Finance, Leicester University, UK. He is a member of the Ghana Institution of Engineers.
Ben has over thirty-eight years engineering experience, including effective implementation of Social and Environment obligations. He was employed by the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA) for 16 year at levels ranging from Supervisory to Senior Management. LHDA oversees the world’s largest (30 year, 5-phase) Lesotho Highlands Water Project.
Ben is experienced in design, contract negotiations, construction management, contract administration, claims adjudication and dispute resolutions, operation and maintenance (O&M) of mega water projects, hydropower generation, management of social environmental programmes as well as financial management of projects.
He consulted on LHWP Phase II Studies for the Lesotho Government by leading the Lesotho Proposal Preparation Team. Ben was responsible for setting up the O&M Group of LHDA whose responsibility it is to ensure that the Muela Hydropower Station runs as a commercial entity and is able to sustain its operations.
Ben was the Deputy Team Leader for the Program Manager on the $430M Metolong Dam and Water Supply Project.
In 2016 Ben was appointed to serve on the governing Council of National University of Lesotho, and in 2017 to serve on Roads Directorate Board of Governors by the Minister of Public Works. He is a Member of Lesotho Association of Engineers and Past President of the Association.
He was the Secretary of the Lesotho National Committee on Large Dams; a body which was affiliated with the International Committee on Large Dams (ICOLD).
Ben obtained his BSc. Mechanical Engineering degree from University of New Brunswick in Canada and went on to earn his MBA – Post Graduate Diploma and Degree in Power Utility Management at University College Dublin (Ireland).
Tshepo is an environmental economist and water management specialist, who has been working as a senior consultant at the Centre for Applied Research since 2006.
Tshepo has over ten years of work experience in Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), sustainable development, natural resources management, environmental economics, governance and institutional analysis as well as socio-economic assessments. She participates in water resource management consultancy projects that influence national water policy direction particularly in the water accounting and IWRM. Her long list of assignments include: the World Bank led WAVES partnership; the development of the Botswana IWRM-Water Efficiency Plan, in close cooperation with the Department of Water Affairs; water audit, institutional mapping, water demand studies (Botswana component), water resources economics of the Cubango Okavango River Basin for the FAO - covering the Okavango basin in Angola, Namibia and Botswana; Botswana’s Framework for Sustainable Development and thematic papers for operationalizing sustainable development in Botswana; and assessing financing of water resources management and development in Botswana.
Tshepo is a member of the WaterNet Alumni Association Steering Committee, since 2012, which translates lessons, knowledge, experiences and expertise of IWRM alumni into actions at all level of IWRM in eastern and southern Africa.
She holds hold a Master of Science degree in IWRM from the University of Zimbabwe and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Economics (University of Botswana).
Gilbert Mafico is a Civil Engineer with 22 years’ experience as a water, sanitation design and construction engineer. He has worked in the fields of water supply, sewerage reticulation and treatment works, including associated structural and building works. Gilbert spent five years working in Europe, and 17 years across Southern African in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia.
Gilbert graduated from the National University of Science & Technology (Zimbabwe) in 1995 and joined a Harare based firm, Hydro-Utilities Consulting Engineers. In 2001 he joined the Bulawayo City Council as a Senior Water and Wastewater Engineer.
In 2003 he relocated to Botswana where he joined CGC Civil and Building Contractors as an Assistant Project Manager, a role that he held until the end of July 2004. He then moved to the Republic of Ireland where he joined Jennings O’Donovan Consulting Engineers as a Lead Design Water Engineer, a role that he held until August 2008.
In September 2008 Gilbert returned to Botswana and joined Pula Consultants (Pty) Ltd as Principal Engineer for water and sanitation projects. He worked in Botswana until December 2014 and then briefly with RCI Consultants in 2015.
In 2016, he moved to Zambia, to provide consultancy services for the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (Zambia) Limited, as a Quality Control Consultant, on the $150M Kafue-Lusaka bulk water supply project. The assignment was completed in December 2018, and Gilbert returned to Zimbabwe to continue as a private consultant on a portfolio of local water, wastewater and structural engineering projects.
Gilbert Mafico, BEng (Hons), MZweIE, PrEng, MIEI, is a Member of the Zimbabwe Institution of Engineers, and is a registered Professional Engineer with the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe.
John is a professional engineer with over 25 years working experience in both project management and maintenance for civil/structural engineering and municipal infrastructure (i.e. water, sewer and roads networks).
He started as a Civil engineering Technician with the National Railways of Zimbabwe where he received his Diploma in Civil Engineering from Harare Polytechnic; and, later, a degree in Civil Engineering as a Cadet from the University of Zimbabwe.
Recently he has been working on piped water supply schemes in Chimanimani as the emergency response to the aftereffects of Cyclone Idai. The schemes supply water to clinics, schools and villages whose water supplies were destroyed by the Cyclone.
Thami Mpala, is a Professional Engineer with 20 years’ engineering design and engineering project management experience in the civil, water, and wastewater engineering sector. His experience in this field includes a total of 15 years working in a consulting capacity in Southern Africa and five years in the United Kingdom (Scotland). He is registered with the Engineering Council of Zimbabwe as a professional engineer, and is a Chartered Engineer registered with the Engineering Council of the United Kingdom.
Thami’s specialization has predominantly been in the field of water network design that includes water supply and reticulation design, pump and reservoir sizing, hydraulics, sewage treatment design and rehabilitation. He is an experienced civil engineer and project manager having managed several large infrastructural projects both in Zimbabwe and the UK.
He has spent the majority of his 20 years’ experience working for consulting engineering firms in Africa and the UK, of which 3 years were with a research and development institute focusing on water-demand related research and training. This experience makes him very much aware of clients’ needs in relation to sustainable infrastructure and value creation.
Thami has led various technical design teams in his capacity as Project Engineer, such as Team Leader on a World Bank water supply assessment study and Project Engineer on the African Development Bank funded Marondera Municipality Integrated Urban Water Management Master Plan Project. His experience, work-attitude and attention to detail has allowed him to excel in these positions. His management of projects now also complements his technical design expertise, and this is further reinforced through the Global Executive MBA that he is about to complete.
Thami is a holder of a Master’s degree in Water Resources Engineering and Management, a BSc honors degree in Civil Engineering and various other professional certificates relating to the water sector. Thami is also the Managing Partner of Hydro-Utilities Consulting Engineers, a private firm registered in Zimbabwe that provides engineering services in the field of civil and structural engineering, a position that he currently holds.
Thami is passionate about the water sector, particularly water technologies and how engineers can contribute towards access to cleaner water for all yet preserving our environment and precious resources. Thami is married to his wife, Buhle and has two boys, Khaya and Luyanda.
Erasmus is a professional engineer and project management consultant with 30 years’ experience in civil engineering, water supply and sanitation and management.
He started his career with the Zimbabwe department of roads as a design and construction engineer. He then moved to John Burrow & Partners Consulting engineers as an urban infrastructure design engineer with a focus on roads, water and sanitation. Erasmus then became a construction manager with a civil engineering company before joining the Gweru City Council as Assistant Director of Engineering services responsible for water and sanitation. He was then promoted to the position of Gweru Water Manager when water and sanitation was made a strategic business unit.
After 18 years with the Gweru municipality, Erasmus moved to Botswana where he helped the government to develop water and sanitation infrastructure for towns and municipalities, including training of staff over a period of four years. Next he joined the German firm of Hydroplan to manage water supply projects in Mozambique. On completion of that assignment he joined another Germany consulting company, Dorsche International, as a project manager for water supply project.
Currently he is a Director at Ras Civil Projects, an infrastructure development and training consultancy in Zimbabwe. Erasmus has worked on several water and sanitation projects for GIZ, Welt Hunger Hilfe and CNFA Zimbabwe.
Erasmus has a BSc Eng (Hons) from the University of Zimbabwe, a Certificate in Sewage Works Engineering from Japan and several water management certificates from various agencies.
