Three months after devastating floods wreaked havoc in eThekwini, the city has announced that a pilot project it started four years ago in partnership with C40 Finance Facility (CFF) will now be rolled out to transform more than 7,400km of the city’s rivers and streams.
The project will run over 10 years as part of bolstering the city’s climate change resilience.
The CFF, a group of 97 cities from around the world that assist developing and emerging countries to prepare and deliver sustainable, low-carbon and climate adaptation projects, has been supporting the municipality to develop the Transformative River Management Programme (TRMP) that will mitigate the effects of climate change as witnessed in the April flooding.
The heavy rains claimed 400 lives, left 14,000 people homeless and caused damage of more than R7bn to critical infrastructure.
According to eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, the programme will provide a scalable and replicable model for how cities across the world can manage and maintain their waterways while maximising socioeconomic benefits. The adaptation is critical, especially for cities like Durban that are already vulnerable to climate change effects.
Kaunda said the CFF has developed the citywide business case for TRMP to tackle the issues of deteriorating water quality, climate change and increased flooding.
The project involves using community co-operatives for stream management, and in so doing it builds enterprises and creates jobs, as part of a transformative adaptation agenda. The programme will be expanded to include a broad range of river conditions, ecological infrastructures, land ownership and land-use conditions to anchor the green economy, develop the social and economic capital of the city and build partnerships.
This pilot programme, estimated to have cost about R28m a year, began with 80 co-operatives with about 600 people employed who managed 525km of rivers and waterways by removing invasive alien plants, litter and debris. They were also trained in business management and farming.
“The city recognises the importance of the natural environment in helping cities to adapt. To this end, the city has invested significantly in protecting, managing and restoring important ecosystems through the community ecosystem-based adaptation approach. As a result of this approach, vulnerable and poor communities are given access to work opportunities to manage and maintain our ecosystems, providing both an income and ecosystem protection from climate effects,” said Kaunda.
“Well-managed ecosystems provide over R4bn worth of services to our city and its residents annually. These waterways are not only responsible for providing water, but they also help regulate the effect of heavy rains and floods if well managed. Therefore, putting necessary resources in rivers and catchments must be central to the city’s climate adaptation response,” he added.
C40 regional director for Africa, Hastings Chikoko, said the process brought together insights from different technical studies, views from affected people at different levels and direction from the city’s policies and strategies.
“It builds on and adds value to the previous riverine management projects and packages some options for the management of ecosystems while ensuring the local economic opportunities for the people along the stream.
“The disaster that affected the city just confirms the climate emergency that many cities are going through. The devastation also has confirmed that climate change is not just an ecological issue but also an economic and social justice issue,” he added.
The project is also being upscaled in Cape Town with an eventual rollout of 2,000km of rivers and streams in that city. The project will kick off with catchments in distressed parts of the city and is likely to involve a process of aggressive re-engineering in favour of ecological infrastructure.
In the Mbombela municipality in Mpumalanga, TRMP involves the implementation of vulnerability assessments and river management models on the Crocodile River and its tributaries.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.