CLIMATE CHANGE
TWO SIDES of the climate change coin: threat and opportunity The impacts of climate change on water in South Africa exacerbate existing waterrelated challenges; however, climate change also presents an opportunity to completely revolutionise the way we manage water, wastewater and sanitation. By Kirsten Kelly
D
uring the 2022 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa mentioned the impact of climate change on South Africa. “We live in one of the regions of the world that is most affected by climate change. We frequently experience droughts, floods and other extreme weather events associated with global warming. Recently, floods
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have affected a number of provinces including KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape. These floods have caused enormous damage to infrastructure and livelihoods.”
Threat
The water crisis risk is connected to natural disasters, biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse. Unfortunately, Southern Africa is a climate change hotspot. It has also long been known
that the region is warming drastically – at about twice the global rate of warming. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its sixth report, predicting that extended dry seasons with severe droughts will increase in frequency in South Africa, with projected increases in fire conditions and higher average wind speeds. We will see an increase of average tropical cyclones and floods
