Nelson Mandela Bay awoke last Saturday to high winds, heavy rains, hail, thunder and lightning.
Amid the good news of rainwater tanks filling up and some rain in our dam catchment areas, also came the reports of fallen trees, fences and power cables, roofs blown off, power outages, flooded roads and potholes, and overflowing manholes.
We are still a long way from the drought being broken, but the impact of just those few hours of heavy weather at the weekend is a clear signal that we should be less worried about when we will get enough rain to fill the dams and more concerned about whether we are ready for that event.
“Day Zero” has been pushed out somewhat and above-normal rains for the coast, and inland where it counts for the dams, are forecast through to December.
At the very least, this will keep rainwater tanks topped up into the new year and reduce pressure on the municipal water supply.
The current drought is part of a climate-change-induced, intensified pattern of drought and flood, where we can expect longer cycles of dryness than before, with rain less frequent and arriving rather in short and intense periods of heavy rain and extreme weather, with high risk of flooding.
Think back to the destruction of the KwaZulu-Natal floods in April, in which almost 500 people died, 4,000 homes were destroyed and tens of thousands of people were displaced — and that mopping-up operation is still under way.
In analysis of why that flooding was so severe, the stormwater drainage system has been identified as a major culprit — insufficient to cope with Durban’s growing population and inadequately maintained.
We have the same challenge in Nelson Mandela Bay.
An ongoing municipal and public works programme of ensuring the drainage system is sufficient to cope with the size of the metro, and sufficiently maintained, along with clearing alien vegetation from watercourses, is crucial to being prepared for the next major rain event.
Education on what not to flush or dump into street drains, improved waste collection and enforcement of illegal dumping bylaws is also needed.
These actions feed into another critical aspect of preparedness — early warning systems and disaster management.
The government, weather service, emergency responders, community support organisations and business need to work together to ensure a coordinated, effective system of preparedness and response.
The few days’ notice from weather forecasters of coming heavy rains is the time for final preparations based on proactive planning — getting teams out to clear high-priority drains, issuing extreme weather warnings, moving people in high-risk areas to higher ground, securing public facilities and businesses, mobilising disaster management teams.
Proactive planning also includes land-use planning — restricting future developments in areas at high risk of flooding or stormwater surges, creating buffer zones, and requiring all new buildings to have rainwater harvesting systems and water-saving toilets, taps and shower heads.
A further aspect of preparedness is becoming more self-reliant.
Water going into our stormwater system is pumped out to sea, effectively wasted — rather harvest it and use it.
Households and businesses need to be capturing every drop that falls, the most obvious way being from roofs into water tanks, and putting the many simple ways of saving and reusing water in place.
Reuse greywater — the water from showers, washing machines, dishwashers and so on — for flushing toilets and watering gardens.
Run water from gutters into swimming pools and install a pool cover to reduce evaporation.
Install water-saving devices when renovating.
Boreholes are a last resort and should be used with caution.
Groundwater is not an infinite resource and aquifers can, and do, implode or draw in saltwater if close to the ocean, destroying the entire aquifer and every borehole connected to it.
Our bylaws should require boreholes to be metered and regulate how much can be extracted and, as in other waterscarce regions, require reverse pumping during periods of heavy rain, to “recharge” the borehole and underlying aquifer.
All of this is sustainable thinking and could be sufficient for our water-stressed area to be more self-reliant, with Nooitgedacht meeting the metro’s needs without relying so heavily on the western dams.
The risks of extreme weather and the need to proactively plan, adapt, mitigate and live more sustainably are not going to change.
In this new normal, we have to think and act differently in our relationship with water, weather and this place where we live, work, play and invest.
- Dr Andrew Muir is CEO of the Wilderness Foundation Africa. He is the immediate past president of the NMB Business Chamber and leads its recently established Eastern Cape Climate Change Coalition.