Richard Ketteringham registered with the Engineering Council of South Africa – ECSA - as a Professional Civil Engineer - Pr Eng - in 1984. He has been involved with water supply, irrigation and drainage engineering in South Africa,Swaziland, Mozambique, Guyana, Lesotho, Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya. He has detailed knowledge of design, construction, installation, operation and maintenance of all types of irrigation and drainage systems, bulk water supply and distribution via canals and pipelines, pump stations, and small dams. He is familiar with and has contributed to field surveys, bid proposals, compilation of capital and operating budgets and contract administration. He also has experience of the design and construction of small reinforced concrete, steel and timber structures including reservoirs, bridges and culverts. He has worked as the civil engineer on three large irrigated sugar estates in Swaziland, Mozambique and in Guyana and a smaller one on the southern coast of Kenya.

From 2008 to 2010 he completed a contract as Deputy Team Leader on the EU financed Three Towns Water Supply and Sanitation Project, a potable water supply project valued at over €22M for three towns in Lesotho, Southern Africa where his role was to supervise the contractor and the supervising staff working in the three towns of Roma, Teyateyaneng and Maputsoe.

In 2010 he was appointed by Lahmeyer - now Tractebel of Belgium - as design engineer to work on the 90 000ha Merowe Irrigation project on the left bank of the Nile River some 450km north of Khartoum, and the 400 000ha Kenana Rahad Project on the right bank of the Blue Nile river immediately downstream of the Roseires dam.

Thereafter in January 2011 he was appoimted by BRL Enginerie of Nimes, France as the Resident Engineer on the construction of the 4 000ha Megesh Seraba Irrigation Scheme on the north shore of Lake Tana in Ethiopia.

From April 2019 to March 2021 he was once again employed by Tractebel as the Senior Resident Engineer on the 4 000ha Lower Nzoia River Irrigation Scheme in south western Kenya.