South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID)

VPH Felix Britz Reinders, Chairman, SANCID

SANCID, representing South Africa at ICID, is a broad based National Committee and extends its membership to government quasi-government and private organizations. The objective of the SANCID, among others, is to stimulate interest and develop advance knowledge in the area of irrigation, drainage and flood management. The executive committee of SANCID consists of Chairman, Vice chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and immediate past Chairman and organizes Annual General Meeting in April each year.

SANCID participates strongly in the activities of ICID. Presently, Dr. Gerhard R. Backeberg is one of the nine Vice Presidents (2011-14). Many experts are participating in various activities of ICID Working Groups. SANCID is also playing a crucial role in the region by bringing together all member countries of Southern Africa under the banner of SARIA.

With the hard work of the Executive and all its members, SANCID won the 4th Best Performing National Committee (4th BPNC) Award for its outstanding achievements and contributions towards the mandate and mission of ICID for period 2011-14. SANCID joined ICID in the year 1993, and is presently celebrating its 20th Anniversary.

Mr. Felix B. Reinders with more than 25 years of professional experience in the field of irrigation and drainage, is presently the Chairman of the South African National Committee on Irrigation and Drainage (SANCID). A keen advocate of taking innovations from drawing boards to field, Mr. Reinders is the Chairperson of the ICID Working Group on On-Farm Irrigation Systems (WG-ON-FARM) since 2004. He was elected as the Vice President of ICID for the term 2005-08, and presently serves as Chairperson of the ICID Permanent Committee on Technical Activities.

Mr. Reinders has been actively involved with development and testing of irrigation equipments at the Agricultural Research Council of the Institute for Agricultural Engineering (ARC-IAE) since 1979. He was the Chief Engineer of ARC-IAE and Head of Irrigation, co-ordinating and initiating irrigation research programmes as well as supervising of irrigation projects. Since 1995, as Programme Manager of Agricultural Water Resources and Conservation at the ARC-IAE, he has been responsible for all irrigation and drainage related projects. Mr. Reinders has played a significant role in the selection, approval and execution of the various projects.

During his leadership, the Irrigation group had received the medal from South Africa Irrigation Institute for development of outstanding irrigation technology. During these years (1993-1995), he was the Head of the Regional Office, looking over professional engineering services based on irrigation schemes, irrigation systems and soil conservation projects. He was the Project leader for various Water Research Commission (WRC) funded projects in the field of irrigation engineering.
Mr. Reinders has served several professional organizations/institutes, either as Fellow, President or simply as Professional Engineer. He is the recipient of many prestigious professional awards as well. His main achievements are – (a) Author of the Water Conservation and Demand Strategy for Agriculture as an outflow of the New Water Act of South Africa; (b) Research of an infiltrometer to size centre pivots which received international recognition; (c) Formulation and compilation of the National Sub-surface drainage design manual for the Department of Agriculture of South Africa; (d) Developed and implemented a mobile irrigation laboratory to determine the efficiency of irrigation systems in the field; and (e) Author of many scientific and semi-scientific papers and articles, especially in the irrigation field.

Mr. Reinders believes in inherent honesty and integrity of all people and concentrates on good communication with people at all levels to ensure that objectives are achieved. His philosophy of life - positive outlook on life and team-work to reach goals. He is a strong believer of the famous adage by Roosevelt - We must hang together, otherwise we are going to hang separately!

ICID congratulates Vice President Hon. Mr. Felix Reinders for the above achievements and looks forward to his continued involvement in the activities of ICID towards fulfilling the mission of ICID.

Contact: reindersf@arc.agric.za