POLICY BRIEFING 155 South Africa's Drought Preparedness: Too Little, Too Late? (original) (raw)

Living with drought in South Africa: lessons learnt from the recent El Niño drought period

A B S T R A C T South Africa is prone to drought. The country recently experienced the combined effects of a severe drought and a strong El Niño event, which led to serious impacts on livelihood conditions and economic growth. By examining the State's response to drought over time, with a specific focus on responses to the current 2016 El Niño-related drought, we expose a number of 'sticking points' in the response to drought and the delayed action to reduce the risks to drought impacts. Complex and seemingly bureaucratic hurdles limiting action are shown to be cumbersome factors that impede and continue to frustrate effective drought response in the country. Such bureaucratic inability to enable swift and flexible responses resulted in many NGOs and civic actors stepping up to provide assistance. As demonstrated in this research, while there are response plans and key contact departments and strategies in South Africa, these have become mired down in officialdom. Some suggest the blame lies with the State itself, and its alleged poor drought risk governance that affect recovery after drought, especially in the agricultural sector. Ineffective responses are surprising given that drought is a familiar feature and given there have been several previous cases of successes in institutional response in the past.

2018 - Drought and Water Crisis in Southern Africa

2018

This publication is a Technical report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission's science and knowledge service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use that might be made of this publication.

Drought preparedness, impact and response: A case of the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces of South Africa

Jamba Journal of Disaster Risk Studies, 2012

Drought is a major disaster in South Africa in terms of total economic loss and number of people affected. This study investigated and analysed the preparedness, impact of and response by the farming community to the 2007/2008 drought using the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces of South Africa as case studies. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were used in this study. Primary data were collected through face-to-face interviews with sampled recipients of the 2007/2008 drought relief scheme. These were analysed using MedCalc ® software and various statistical tests and correlations were performed to test for statistical differences on key variables. Major findings of this study included inadequacy of the extension support service, particularly as a vehicle for disseminating early-warning information. The most significant impact was livestock losses, and t-test results supported the hypothesis that there was a significant difference in terms of drought impact for the three categories of farmers (i.e. small, medium and large scale), particularly with regard to the proportion of livestock lost. A Logit analysis showed that the decision to reduce livestock during drought was influenced by access to land and race. The main constraint to the drought relief scheme, as perceived by the respondents, was the turnaround time − they felt that the relief was provided long after the disaster had occurred.

Policy Brief: The Future of Drought Management for Cape Town: Summary for Policy Makers

2017

The City of Cape Town (CCT), and South Africa in general, have been experiencing significant water shortages due to the ongoing drought. In early April 2017, the CCT was reportedly down to its last 100 days of water (News24, 2017) and on 31 May, the City imposed unprecedented Level 4 water restrictions, which introduced stricter limitations on residential water use, encouraging use of up to 100 liters (l) per person per day; forbidding irrigation with municipal water; and suggesting the use of treated effluent and wastewater for non-potable purposes. The indigent water allocation for impoverished households was capped at 350 l per day (CCT, 2017). On 31 May, CCT announced they will start working on a new Water Resilience Plan to address the future of Cape Town’s water. Due to climate change effects, drought events are no longer within an envelope of predictable probability. In fact, South Africa is likely to experience more frequent droughts in the future. As our research suggests, existing institutional barriers to alternative water source integration may be limiting effective adaptation responses to hydrological variability and regime changes. Our research serves to inform the new Water Resilience Plan by highlighting aspects that can best contribute to increased water-related resilience. We find that Water Sensitive Urban Design principles and enhanced groundwater protection measures show promise to provide a more flexible portfolio approach to drought in Cape Town. This can reduce dependence on dams and surface water and provide additional buffer in times of scarcity. This policy brief is based on research that investigated the water governance landscape of the CCT, with a focus on resilience in the water sector.

Building water resilience into strategy: The Cape Town drought

Resilience of Water Supply in Practice: Experiences from the Frontline, 2021

The Cape Town drought captured the world's attention at the beginning of 2018 with the announcement of Day Zero: the day that Cape Town's taps would run dry. In the eye of the storm a host of factors contributed to the panic, and rapidly falling dam levels. Politics was exceptionally conflictual, interaction between spheres of government responsible for various aspects of water supply far from perfect, with public perception and media frenzy driving a focus on matters which played a very small part in the effort not to run out of water. During this time, Cape Town was building a water strategy, specifically aimed at making Cape Town more resilient against future droughts by addressing all possible factors contributing to the drought crisis. With dams close to overflowing in 2020, the next challenge is to ensure that the strategy is implemented according to plan.

Drought: A Common Environmental Disaster

Atmosphere, 2022

Droughts have been identified as an environmental hazard by environmentalists, ecologists, hydrologists, meteorologists, geologists, and agricultural experts. Droughts are characterised by a decrease in precipitation over a lengthy period, such as a season or a year, and can occur in virtually all climatic zones, including both high and low rainfall locations. This study reviewed drought-related impacts on the environment and other components particularly, in South Africa. Several attempts have been made using innovative technology such as earth observation and climate information as recorded in studies. Findings show that the country is naturally water deficient, which adds to the climate fluctuation with the average annual rainfall in South Africa being far below the global average of 860 mm per year. Drought in South Africa’s Western Cape Province, for example, has resulted in employment losses in the province’s agriculture sector. According to the third quarterly labor force sur...

An Assessment of the 2015–2017 Drought in Windhoek

Frontiers in Climate, 2021

Namibia is the most arid country in Sub-Saharan Africa. In Windhoek, the capital city, accelerated population growth and expanding economic activities, coupled with highly variable rainfall and multiyear droughts, have jeopardized water security and put enormous stress on socioeconomic development. This paper offers a review of the 2015–2017 drought and the responses that were implemented during it, with a focus on engagement with the public, industries, and public institutions to achieve water-saving targets. It also considers how the use of the Windhoek Drought Response Plan during the 2015–2017 drought furthered preparedness efforts for future droughts. The assessment ends with a discussion of government responses, challenges faced, and lessons learned—lessons that can hopefully pave the way for more effective responses to future drought situations in the country.

Challenges for drought mitigation in Africa: The potential use of geospatial data and drought information systems

Applied Geography, 2012

Challenges for drought mitigation in Africa: the potential use of geospatial data and drought information systems Abstract Understanding, monitoring and mitigating drought is a very difficult task as a consequence of the intrinsic nature of the phenomenon. In addition, assessing the impact of drought on ecosystems and societies is also a complex task, because the same drought severity may have different consequences in different regions and systems due to the underlying vulnerabilities. New technologies based on geospatial information are available to determine the risk and vulnerability of a system to a drought and to develop monitoring and early warning systems based on real-time information to support decision making. To improve drought preparedness and mitigation, geospatial datasets based on climate information, Earth Observation Systems and statistical and dynamical modeling methodologies can make a noticeably difference in mitigating drought impacts in Africa. In this article we illustrate how the development of drought information systems based on geospatial technology, that combines static and real-time information, could improve the possibilities of drought mitigation in Africa. We stress that it is necessary to go beyond past attempts to manage drought risk based on a reactive crisis-response approach, by promoting drought mitigation and preparedness at the national and regional levels. For this purpose the development of drought information tools is fundamental for the implementation of drought management plans and to support real-time decision-making.