Dam levels in the Western Cape have increased slightly over the past week‚ reaching an average level of 52%. Last year at this time‚ the dam levels were at 29%. This is according to a statement on Monday by the province's minister of local government‚ environmental affairs and development planning‚ Anton Bredell. The dams feeding the City of Cape Town are standing at 58% … [Read more...]
20 cities in India to run out of groundwater within two years
An Indian government think tank has warned that New Delhi is set to run out of groundwater within two years as climate change and dramatic population growth hit supplies. Based on data collected from 24 of 29 Indian states, the National Institute for Transforming India (NITI) warned that the country's worst ever water shortage is likely to adversely impact some 600 million … [Read more...]
Greenpeace slams China over R33.7bn Eskom loan
Environmental activist group Greenpeace is at odds with China after it awarded Eskom a $2.5 billion (R33.7 billion) loan to complete the coal-fired Kusile Power Station near Witbank in Mpumalanga province. On Tuesday, Eskom signed a loan agreement with the China Development Bank in Pretoria. The power utility says the facility will form part of the funding of Eskom's build … [Read more...]
Climate change to blame for Europe’s heatwave
Partly, it’s just the luck of the weather. The jet stream – the west-to-east winds that play a big role in determining Europe’s weather – has been further north than usual for about two months. A stationary high-pressure weather system has left the UK and much of continental Europe sweltering. Iceland, by contrast, has been hit with clouds and storms that would normally come … [Read more...]
Deforestation is affecting global water cycles and causing drought
A growing body of evidence indicates that the continuing destruction of tropical forests is disrupting the movement of water in the atmosphere, causing major shifts in precipitation that could lead to drought in key agricultural areas in China, India, and the U.S. Midwest. Every tree in the forest is a fountain, sucking water out of the ground through its roots and releasing … [Read more...]
U.N. pact offers hope to world’s climate migrants
Be it by flood, drought or hurricane, communities at risk of climate displacement have won vital protection after their plight was for the first time recognised in a global pact on migration, campaigners say. The United Nations agreed last Friday to draw up the migration compact to cope with the millions of migrants moving from country to country. Now campaigners want … [Read more...]
Three ways that cities can adapt to changing climates
Cape Town’s “Day Zero” experience – the prospect of dam levels dropping dangerously low, taps running dry and water rations being distributed from public collection points – speaks powerfully to the urgency and complexity of climate change adaptation. The recent arrival of the South African city's winter rains mean that dam levels have begun rising again and it’s dodged the … [Read more...]
SA cities facing the biggest threat from climate change
Major South African centres are at risk from the effects of climate change, says an international report. The four coastal cities Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth and East London, and Paarl which is inland, are at risk of flooding by 2050, says the C40 Cities Future We Don't Want report. According to the organisation, which connects 96 global cities, rising sea levels … [Read more...]
Aliens are greatest threat to Cape Town’s water security
Invasive alien plants are possibly the greatest threat to Cape Town’s water security and climate resilience. Yet the city of Cape Town has made no effort to address this threat in response to the current drought. The worst-case climate change scenarios predict about a 10% decline in Cape Town’s water supply by 2050. But we’re already losing this much to invasive alien plants … [Read more...]
New coal plants not the way forward for drought-prone SA
Support for new coal-fired power plants like the proposed Thabametsi coal-fired power plant in Lephalale, Limpopo is fast drying up in a region where the Water and Sanitation Department rated water security as “high risk” because supply only just meets demand at present. Coal-fired power stations are responsible for half of South Africa’s carbon emissions, and in addition to … [Read more...]
Cape Town business welcomes reduction in water price hikes
Businesses in Cape Town have welcomed drastic cuts in proposed water price hikes. But Janine Myburgh‚ president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry‚ said on Tuesday the initial proposed 55% increase was a “shocking indictment” of City of Cape Town officials and councillors. “They are simply too focused on extracting revenue from the public rather than reducing … [Read more...]
Cape Town’s first desalination plant delivers drinking water
Cape Town's Strandfontein desalination plant is up and running. Deputy Mayor Ian Neilson was given a taste of the first 3 megalitres (ML) being produced there as rainwater dripped off his nose at the beachfront site on Monday. "If you want it to rain, build a desalination plant," quipped Neilson as a squall swirled around the delegation inspecting the plant built near the … [Read more...]
Cape Town could get above normal rainfall from June, predict US scientists
The International Research Institute (IRI) for Climate and Society at Columbia University has just released its latest rainfall predictions, and there may be good news for the drought-stricken Western Cape. In March, the IRI predicted that the province was most likely to receive "below to near normal rainfall" in May, June and July. But this week, the IRI upgraded its … [Read more...]
