About The Dewatering Institute (TDI)

Christoffel has specialised in Construction Dewatering and Groundwater Control for over 16 years. During this time, he has designed, installed and operated more than 350 dewatering systems in Africa, Asia, Europe, North America and the Middle East. He has held key executive level positions working for client, consultant, main contractor and specialised sub-contractors. His project experience extends through small dewatering projects to leading design and construction teams of some of the world’s largest dewatering contactors and consultancies. He has a passion for training and knowledge sharing in his field of expertise.

Tim has been employed by Roscoe Moss Company since 1979 and currently serves as its President.  Over the last 42 years he has been involved with production wells for municipal supply, irrigation wells for large commercial growers, water supply wells for mineral processing, aquifer storage and recovery wells, along with dewatering wells used for controlling water levels in mines  and construction related ground control.  He is a committee member of AWWA A-100, responsible for development of water well standards and member of the ASTM D18 subcommittee responsible for standards related to design and construction of monitoring wells.  Business related activities have provided Tim the opportunity to travel and work in over 50 countries throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia.

Dr Kym Morton is an international expert on mine dewatering design with over 40 years’ experience on over 300 mines. Her qualifications include BSc Hons Kings College, London, MSc Hydrogeology University College London, PhD in mining hydrology Imperial College London and an MBA in innovation from Imperial College London. She is a  Chartered Geologist (UK) , Fellow of the South African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Fellow of the Geological Society (UK), Founder member of the groundwater division of the South African Geological Society and a member of MENSA. Dr Morton is well known for her pragmatic approach to mine dewatering design and implementation which combines international hands-on experience with impeccable qualifications.

Stephen is a British and European Chartered Civil Engineer, having over 40 years of experience solving groundwater problems in the Construction and Energy Industries. Stephen is Founder & Managing Director of OGI Groundwater Specialists Ltd, established in 1989 to Design & Install Groundwater Control and Dewatering Systems for a range of both large and small construction projects. Stephen is also a specialist in Mathematical Modelling of groundwater and geotechnical behaviour, having written a number of Finite Element models, which are used to design efficient dewatering systems which have been constructed in numerous projects worldwide. Together with his team at OGI, Stephen has received a number of Ground Engineering Awards for Technical Excellence in the field of Groundwater and Geotechnical Engineering.

Jaap is specialised in Construction Dewatering and Water Treatment with over 15 years experience in these areas and is currently heading up the international division for Siltbuster Ltd. He has had the opportunity to work on key projects in Europe, North America and the Middle East on both the Consultant, Contractor and Specialist Sub-Contractor’s side. The projects he has been involved in range from singular de-ironing water treatment plan to full-scale groundwater control at 21 different construction sites located in Copenhagen for the city’s metro extension.

Prof. Kai Witthüser has more than 23 years of experience in hydrogeology, specialising in mining related environmental impact assessments, hydrogeological and geochemical modelling. Kai lectured at the University of Bonn (Germany) and Pretoria (South Africa), before joining Water Geosciences Consulting as a director and groundwater specialist in 2006 (the company merged later with Metago and SLR Africa) and starting Delta h Water Systems Modelling in 2012. He is Affiliated Professor at the Institute for Groundwater Studies, University of the Free State since 2009. Countries of work experience include Austria, Benin, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Denmark, Germany, Ghana, India, Israel, Morocco, Namibia, Slovenia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe

Peter brings over 30 years of ground engineering experience to the advisory board.  His career has covered a broad range of disciplines including geotechnics, groundwater abstraction, dewatering and geothermal ground source energy.  Starting in project management roles, Peter has experience in contracts management, operations, country directorship and senior sales director roles that have taken him across Africa, Middle East and Europe during his varied career.  He has been with Fugro since 2010 and currently holds the role of Regional Director for Strategic sales & Marketing for their Europe & Africa region.  Peter specialises in drilling, specifically water well; geotechnical and geothermal sub surface investigations, as well as practical experience installing dewatering systems, geothermal ground source energy and undertaking large scale site characterisation projects.

Francois a Technical Engineer for Project Dewatering Limited (PDL). PDL is a specialised dewatering contractor based in the UK and part of the Hoelscher International Group. Francois is also  enrolled as a master’s student at NWU Potchefstroom in South Africa. His duty as a Technical Engineer involves all aspects related to dewatering, from documenting tenders and client communications to dewatering designs and quotation preparations. Francois role as Graduate Advisory Council Member would be to provide input from a recently graduated Geohydrologist point of view. He would also be linking TDI more closely with students and his other peers to ensure TDI servers the specialist of the future as well.

Bronson Gerken, P.G. has been in the dewatering industry for over 10 years and is the Vice President of the Technical Services department at Griffin Dewatering. He obtained his Bachelor’s in Geology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and is a licensed geologist in the States of Kansas, Nebraska, California, Florida, North Carolina, and Washington. Bronson has been involved in numerous groundwater control projects across the United States and currently leads a team of geologists and engineers in designing groundwater control systems to meet each of their clients needs. Being in the dewatering industry, Bronson has had the opportunity to be involved with multiple aquifer pumping tests, has become proficient at creating and understanding groundwater modeling, and has come to understand proper water well construction and design.

Andres’s work history starts back 21 years ago when, as a freshly graduated civil engineer, he joined a geotechnical consultancy firm in Colombia. It was one of the most amazing experiences, he had the opportunity to be mentored by experienced ground engineering professionals to solve problems arising from complex geotechnical conditions in a mountainous and seismically active country. He travelled all around the country to participate in projects covering various challenges, from earth dams geotechnical and seismic risk assessment to seismic microzonation and site-specific seismic response studies. From the experience gained during his initial professional years he reaffirmed his interest in ground engineering. In 2007, he moved to Europe to pursue Master studies in Geotechnical and Earthquake Engineering and to gain professional experience working for design consultancy firms and contractors in the management, design, procurement, and construction of geotechnical and tunnelling large-scale underground projects. In 2012, he relocated to the Middle East  to be part of the construction of the Doha Metro Underground Project, from tender design to handing over. Most recently in 2019, he joined Stantec as the Middle East Regional Technical Lead for Ground Engineering, where he have participated in various projects covering the design and construction supervision of underground pumping stations, tunnels, earthworks, and outfalls.

Owen serve as the President and CEO of NCS Fluid Handling Systems Inc. The inception of NCS Fluid Handling Systems stemmed from a recognition of a pertinent opportunity and a personal interest in the service industry. He was keenly aware of the growing importance of responsible water management, prompting his decision to establish this enterprise. NCS Fluid Handling Systems is committed to providing the highest standard of care and custody related to all water handling services, catering to the Energy, Mining, Industrial, and Municipal Construction sectors. Experienced Leader with a demonstrated history of working with and developing strong teams. Skilled in Negotiation, Strategic Planning, Operations Management, Analytical Skills, and Coaching. Strong business professional with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) focused in Business Administration, Management and Operations from Royal Roads University.
Focusing on partnership and overall success by raising up the entire teams level of personal knowledge, corporate collaboration with a keen focus of internal and external customer care.

Niel Kriel, Operations Hydrogeologist at Rio Tinto, Perth, Western Australia, Australia. Hydrogeologist with a keen interest in dewatering and associated groundwater management.
Niel has been fortunate enough to have worked in dewatering across multiple industries in a short amount of time. He was exposed to groundwater and to a larger extent mine dewatering when he started off as a geology vacation student in the Copper Belt of Zambia. After finishing his undergrad in geology, he went on to complete a post-graduate honours and masters in hydrogeology whilst working part-time conducting hydro and geophysical investigations and consulting. A year into his master’s he found himself moving to Qatar where he worked as a dewatering design engineer for a couple of years, during this early stage of his career where he was exposed to a lot of dewatering related work with the rapid expansion of Qatar and assisting our European branches with dewatering design. After Qatar, Niel and his wife moved to Australia where he worked as a consulting hydrogeologist supporting our dewatering consulting network in Perth and surrounds. Fast forward to the present day where he currently sits as the operations hydrogeologist responsible for in-pit dewatering and groundwater management in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia. Across his journey he has been exposed to several different dewatering strategies within different aquifer systems, each with its own set of challenges whether its drawdown related or regulatory restricted.