The Corrosion Institute of Southern Africa hosted a World Corrosion Day event at Accolades Boutique Hotel in President Park to raise awareness on corrosion and teach about the impact that corrosion has on infrastructure and the environment.

Engineers, industry professionals and students from various universities such as Witwatersrand University (Wits), Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and University of Pretoria (UP) gathered to share information and ideas on how to combat corrosion.

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Eskom played a vital role in sharing its knowledge about the importance of knowing how to prevent corosion and to maintain infrastructure.

Petra Mitchell who is the executive director of the Corrosion Institute spoke about why it is important for the institute to host the World Corrosion Awareness Day event annually and inviting students from the different universities.

“As the Corrosion Institute we hold this event annually because we want to teach people about corrosion especially because not everyone is aware of it and this is probably the biggest turnout we’ve had. Just to see more people come means people want to know more and we will be able to prevent it.

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I think from a student point of view it is for them to be guided on corrosion and know where to go to do their research papers when doing their postgrads which is when they learn about corrosion.”

The information shared at the awareness day also touched on the broader impact, focusing on how the economy loses financially because of corrosion and how environmentally, it can pose dangers.

Some of the guest speakers emphasised the importance of working together as a team and coming up with different ideas in the fight to prevent corrosion.

Vice president of Corrosion Institute and corrosion engineering consultant Gert Conradie mentioned that corrosion is a silent enemy and people need to work together to combat it.

“The thing is that corrosion is such a silent enemy and it is always lurking there in the background, and the biggest problem we are sitting with is that people don’t know that corrosion can be treated and combatted, by working together, especially with the new technologies available.”

The Corrosion Institute hopes that this event demonstrated its dedication to corrosion prevention and that it had a beneficial effect on the attendees from other institutions, enabling them to share this information at those institutions.

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