The South African National Committee on Large Dams (SANCOLD) has revised its constitution and will be restructured as the new SANCOLD.  The new SANCOLD will continue, as in the past, to represent South Africa on ICOLD, the International Commission on Large Dams and will support ICOLD’s mission in South Africa.

The new SANCOLD’s mission will be to advance the science and art of planning, design, construction, operation, management, maintenance, rehabilitation and decommissioning of dams, to develop South African water resources in a safe, financially sound, ecologically and socially sustainable manner.  The new SANCOLD is thus committed to fostering technical excellence and good practice in all of these aspects of the dam industry.

SANCOLD was often seen as being an elite organisation, only narrowly representative of the true role players in the industry.  The new SANCOLD will, however, be constituted to be inclusive, widely embracing and democratically representative of the dam community in South Africa.  The new SANCOLD will thus be a vehicle to bring the various groups, inevitably involved in projects concerning dams and water resources, closer together.

The new SANCOLD Management Committee will be democratically elected, and will strive towards demographic, gender and young-person representation on the elected committee.