Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources in Southern Africa

Water is one sector witnessing depletion and degradation due to the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme climate-related events such as droughts, heatwaves, and flooding. These events have been consistently increasing with the corresponding change in climate.  

These developments have compromised the water and sanitation initiatives to achieve sustainability in the sector by 2030. The climate change impacts starting at a local scale, which will ultimately lead to practical solutions that will increase resilience and adaptive capacity. 

The Impact of Climate Change on Water Resources

The risk that climate change poses to water supply and demand is growing both globally and locally. Municipalities struggle to put their water resource needs and impacts into the context of a greater system. Pollution is another major problem in Municipalities. Mining related pollution has drastic effects on water quality as well as the whole surrounding environment. 

Many waste water plants in South Africa are old and are reaching their design capacity. This has severe implications for health and environmental systems, as well as future water management planning and provision. It is not sufficient to supply areas with new wastewater removal services if the treatment and disposal infrastructure cannot handle the additional load. Upgrading the current infrastructure is of high priority. 

Scientists around the world now agree that the climatic changes occurring internationally are the result of human activity. Although responsibility for the causes of climate change rests primarily with the developed and industrialised nations, the costs of climate change will be borne most directly by the poor.

Water Service Challenges faced by Municipalities 3% Primarily the biggest issue regarding water in South Africa is its scarcity. Municipal areas do not correspond with water drainage boundaries, which make water abstraction and disposal a complex issue. South Africa has some of the most complex water resource infrastructure in the world. Urban areas such as Gauteng have to bring water in from areas hundreds of kilometres away.

The difficulty of bringing water to isolated communities or those in high elevations, has added to the large backlog of water provision in South Africa. Although the backlog of water service provision has been reduced to meet the Millennium Development Goal targets, there remains a large portion of the population that does not have access to basic water service delivery.

The Southern Africa region is extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, both in terms of the region’s water resources and development. The projections into the future show declining trends in rainfall because of the changing climate. Changing climate will also have significant impacts on the availability of water, as well as the quality and quantity of water that is available and accessible. 

Water Resource Management

The Department of Water and Environmental Affairs has highlighted the need for behavioural change with respect to water usage in South Africa. Water use behaviour has a direct impact on water quality and quantity. Changes are necessary through the range of users from individual domestic users to the mining, agriculture and industrial sectors. Behavioural change that minimizes the overall demand on the scarce water resources will allow the current infrastructure and plans to be more sustainable. The major aim is to increase water use efficiency by increasing output and minimising water usage. 

It is vital that water management and service delivery are viewed as a part of a greater environmental system. The impact of water use on surrounding environments and possible risks need to be taken into account during planning and management. To achieve this, the whole water cycle needs to be considered. Factors such as run-off, underlying geology, surface soil type, climate variability, climate change and consumer demands are but a few factors which are affected and in turn affect water management in local municipalities. 

When municipalities compose their climate change adaptation response, as they are now being encouraged to do, they should consider their specific local circumstances. The entire water services value chain is vulnerable to the effects of climate change, from the raw water source, through to the purification and distribution processes and subsequent wastewater treatment.

It is important to adequately plan to respond to both droughts and floods while increasing resilience to these extremes. Future infrastructural development needs to include the increase of storage capacity such that more floodwater is captured and stored.  

This can include underground storage where more water may be stored for future use. This will reduce societal vulnerability to the impacts of floods while reserving these extremely high volumes of water for use in drier periods and also for groundwater recharge. On the other hand, recovery from droughts is a timely process.

Conclusion

There is a strong link between water resources and climate variability around the country. Trends towards greater urbanization and densification, coupled with environmental changes such as climate change, are likely to exert pressure on water resources. It is necessary for strategic planning at a local government level to avoid water supply challenges in the future.