The central role of municipalities in improving the day-to-day lives of local communities is of critical importance, and as such, municipal governments need to assess the vulnerability of their communities to climate change by understanding what challenges they will face in the future. Municipal government is the order of government closest to citizens' daily lives and they have a direct influence on the environmental, economic and social factors that define the quality of community life. Municipalities are responsible for improving the quality of life for people living within their administrative areas and this goal is usually accomplished under the following objectives:
- The provision of basic services such as electricity, sanitation, water, solid waste removal and formal housing.
- The maintenance and development of infrastructure necessary for the smooth and reliable delivery of basic services.
- The development of economic policies which ensures sustainable economic development that leads to better opportunities for employment.
At a global level, national governments have experienced reductions in budgets which invariably lead to situations where less money is allocated at the local level to fund responsibilities that have been allocated to the local governments through the use of national mandates. The responsibility of providing essential infrastructure and services has been shifted to local municipalities that in some cases do not have the financial ability to maintain critical infrastructure. Local municipalities have expressed the need for a clearer understanding of the financial and legal frameworks for supporting action at the local level. They also suggest that adequate funding, and support and training of human capacity is needed to proactively respond to the consequences of climate change at the local level.
Municipal representatives will be interested in knowing the answers to the following questions:
- What impact will climate change have on its capacity to deliver the services and utilities that the communities that they serve need and expect?
- What changes should be made in the economic policies at the local level to ensure that enough jobs will be created in the future to reduce the unemployment rate?
- What are the current and potential impacts of climate change on informal settlements located in the local and district municipalities?
- Are municipal plans for economic develop viable in light of the projected changes in rainfall and temperature?
- What effect will extreme events such as droughts and floods pose on the life cycle of infrastructure designed from historical observations?
- What are the consequences of climate change to the portion of the population currently living below RDP standards?
The role of Integrated Development Plans
Planning decisions at the provincial level are usually supported by the Provincial Growth and Development Strategy (PGDS) while local and district municipalities use Integrated Development Plans (IDP) for the same purpose at the local level. The PGDS is an overall framework for socio-economic development for provincial government. One of the goals of provincial government is to use the PGDS to harmonize the National Spatial Development Perspective (NSDP) and the IDP from district and local municipalities. The IDP serves as a framework that informs decisions related to the development in a specific area and all district and local municipalities are required to produce and IDP every five years. If used effectively the IDP can:
- Promote the effective use of scarce resources
- Speed up the delivery of basic services
- Create opportunities for private investors and national departments to be involved financially
- Allow important stakeholders to participate in a transparent and democratically way
- Promote coordination between local, provincial and national government
The lack of relevant information has been identified as a bottleneck to the ability to mainstream climate change adaption into infrastructure investment decisions and IDP at the local level. The organizational structure of provincial, district and local municipalities is seen in the Figure 2.
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| Figure 2: Organisational structure of the district and local municipalities in Limpopo and Mpumalanga, South Africa. |
Economic profile of municipalities in Kruger to Canyons Biosphere
Labour, environmental quality and capital available for investment are important factors which affect the level of output in an economy. Slow growth in an economy can have an adverse effect on the goal to decrease poverty levels in a municipality. One factor which leads to the vulnerability of an area is the concentration of economic activities in the rural sector. The majority of the population in Kruger to Canyons is classified as rural so the rural sector is an important sector in the area. The rural sector is made up of the three sub-categories of subsistence farming, commercial farming and rural non-farming activities (Machethe 2004). Examples of sources of income which come from the rural non-farming activities are old age pensions, remittances and family business.
The concentration of activities in one sector limits flexibility to switch to other sectors which are less sensitive to changes in climate such as manufacturing and services. It is notable that agriculture has been identified as the sector through which a number of the local municipalities in the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere have decided to focus future economic development. Currently in Mpumalanga province the agriculture, hunting forestry and fishing sector comprises about 6.1% to the Gross Geographic Product (GGP) while contributing 18.1% of the formal employment in the province (Macro-Economic Indictors, Statistics South Africa, GDPR 2002). In the Limpopo province the agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing sector is responsible for 2.7% of the GGP (Macro-Economic Indictors, Statistics South Africa, GDPR 2002). The rate of unemployment in the Mopani district stands at 41,8% (Source: Development Index Framework: Limpopo) with the unemployment for Ehlanzeni at 36,1% (Source: Ehlanzeni District Municipality IDP 2009/2010) so changes to the climate which would force the shut down or movement of agricultural business would have a enormous effect on a community which is made up largely of unskilled labour. The agricultural sector is expected to be impacted by the damaging impacts of climate change and as such would be a risky sector to use as a focal point of sustainable development.
Service Delivery
The provision of water, sanitation and electricity for the local municipalities will be discussed in this section. The level of basic services for the Ehlanzeni and Mopani district municipalities is shown in the Table 2.
Table 2: (a) Mopani District (Mopani District IDP 2007/08) and (b) Ehlanzeni District Municipality Water and Sanitation Blueprint (Ehlanzeni District IDP 2009/10)
| (a) Mopani |
Number of Households |
Basic |
Basic |
Below Basic |
Below Basic |
Source |
| Service |
|
Households |
Percentage |
Households |
Percentage |
|
| Sanitation |
315259 |
158754 |
49,71% |
160604 |
50,28% |
1a |
| Water |
315259 |
212240 |
67,32% |
103019 |
32,68% |
1a |
| Electricity |
315259 |
243949 |
77,38% |
71310 |
22,62% |
1a |
| (b) Ehlanzeni |
Number of Households |
Basic |
Basic |
Below Basic |
Below Basic |
Source |
| Service |
|
Households |
Percentage |
Households |
Percentage |
|
| Sanitation |
450114 |
212120 |
47.10% |
237994 |
52,9% |
1b |
| Water |
450114 |
187682 |
41.70% |
262432 |
58,3% |
2b |
| Electricity |
450114 |
356821 |
89,61% |
95025 |
21.03% |
3b |
Access to potable water is important for factor to water security and a right of people living in South Africa. The lack of bulk and reticulation infrastructure which is inherent to many rural areas in South Africa is one reason why Ehlanzeni and Mopani both with large rural populations have low levels of access to water. As a country South Africa experienced the consequences of below basic access to water resources with the epidemic spread of cholera in 2000/2001. The risk of water borne diseases due to changes in rainfall patterns and temperature increases expected with climate change (refer to section 3.3) will be increased in households without proper access to potable water. The resources spent in the community to deal with patients affected by the water borne diseases will divert money away from capital investments necessary for economic development.
The low levels of sanitation among households in the Mopani and Ehlanzeni district lead to the use of systems which can degrade natural resources. The extensive use of unlined pit latrines poses a potential pollution threat to surface and groundwater resources. The use of pit latrines in Bushbuckridge has led to the contamination of groundwater resources in areas which are dependent upon boreholes for domestic use (Ehlanzeni District Municipality IDP 2009/10). Another challenge is the high level of the water table which is another factor which increases contamination from pit latrines. There are a number of schools and clinics located in both districts that do not have access to proper sanitation even though the municipalities are responsible for the provision of sanitation at schools and clinics.
Among the basic services provided, electricity at basic level is provided at close to 90% for the Mopani district and around 78% in the Ehlanzeni. Unfortunately households living in poverty without access turn to other forms of energy such as gas, paraffin, solar and wood. The effect on air quality, an individual's health and the increased fire risk among informal settlements is a negative consequence that will affect a population with minimum coping capacity.
Informal Settlements
People living in marginalized areas are vulnerable to the physical impacts of climate because of the current status of an already fragile economic structure that is sensitive to changes in climate as well as the low incomes that constrain their ability to adapt. Informal settlements also referred to as shanty towns are considered to be dense settlements made up of communities housed in self constructed shelters often under conditions of informal or traditional land tenure. As such they are characterized by a dense proliferation of small, make shift shelters built from diverse materials, and by degraded local ecosystems. Construction is not guided by urban planning so formal infrastructure in the form of sanitation networks, electricity or telephone services are either outdated or nonexistent. People who reside in informal settlements in developing countries have been identified as one of the most vulnerable populations at a global level. The nature of the set up ensures that the provision of basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation are difficult to properly roll out in a timely manner to residents.
The status of informal settlements at the level of local municipalities in the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Reserve has been detailed in the IDP of the individual municipalities. There are three settlements in the Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality which houses close to 1143 households. Within the Greater Letaba local municipality one informal settlement which houses close to 2792 dwellings has been identified. The Greater Tzaneen local municipality has two informal settlements with 2493 households. Approximately 2.1% of the population in Bushbuckridge municipality live in informal settlements. Informal settlements are often vulnerable to water related disasters such as floods and severe storms particularly in cases when the communities are located in flood plains and due to the absence of proper water infrastructure.
Infrastructure
In some cases infrastructure which has been built to handle a historic range of weather related conditions will not be adequate for the intensity and variability of future weather events. Climate change creates added risk for infrastructure projects and information from climate projections should be mainstreamed in to planning and the process for approval of projects.
Conclusion
Local government is at the forefront of dealing with disasters and other negative consequences of climate change that affect the population of South Africa. It is imperative that local municipalities work closely with climate change scientist to begin the following:
- A systematic review of climate trends and projections for the local area and the likely impacts
- An assessment of the vulnerabilities of service infrastructure and potential costs of climate impacts.
- The identification of the range of options for reducing vulnerabilities which build on existing programs
- The identification of opportunities for including climate adaptation in IDP at the local level.
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