South Africa needs effective climate resilience strategies to help reduce water-related risks in the face of the increasing impact of climate change, says Royal HaskoningDHV civil and resilience engineer Keketso Motjuwadi.

Climate-change-related events are becoming more frequent and more extreme, with a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report showing that the effects of carbon emissions on the climate will be felt for decades to come.

“Climate resilience is key to not only protecting lives, but also ensuring business continuity and protecting our economy, which we have all been reminded how fragile it is, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic,” he tells Engineering News & Mining Weekly.

“We need to be prepared.”

However, he says that there are many tools that are readily available and South Africa has the knowledge, the skills and the technology available through engineers and companies like Royal HaskoningDHV that have a strong desire to do the work and create sustainable solutions.

“With regard to the struggles particularly around droughts, what I am seeing is that there is no real incorporation of resilience and resilience engineering in the way we tackle these issues, particularly around prevention, preparation, response and recovery.”

Applying the resilience-enhancing measures of prevention, preparation, response and recovery could be key to enabling South Africa’s climate resilience as the water-scarce country mitigates limited supply of water, higher climate change risks and disaster prevention.

Prevention, Motjuwadi says, examines alternative water supply, such as water reuse and desalination, as well as water conservation and public education, which allows for more water-use-conscious behaviour.

The second principle, preparation, entails leak detection and repair.

Water leaks reportedly account for about 35% of Nelson Mandela Bay’s water loss, for example. Nationally, addressing water loss through fixing leaks has been identified as one of the major avenues for mitigation.

“With such a high percentage of water leaks alone, leak detection can greatly assist in reducing water consumption to acceptable levels to help metropolitans better function through a drought,” he says.

Another avenue in the preparation approach is the adjustment of codes, regulation and policy, he says, citing an example of updating of policies to make retrofitting mandatory for all new buildings to allow for improved ease of water conservation management.

“This will have a great impact.”

The third tool, response, entails the integration of Disaster Information Management Systems (DIMS) into city planning to support role-players through the disaster management cycle from start to finish.

For example, a part of the DIMS suggests the use of water pressure management devices.

“The introduction of water pressure management devices, such as flow restrictor discs, was one of the most effective tools used by the City of Cape Town, which resulted in a water-use reduction of 40%,” Motjuwadi says.

Lastly, the recovery element reviews and revises what has been done, what has worked successfully and what did not, so as to determine how to “build back better” for the future.

Motjuwadi adds that Royal HaskoningDHV has several offerings to assist in water management, particularly in the realm of flooding, which is one of the main focus areas of its clients.

“For prevention, there is a tool called BlueLabel, a flood risk management tool that operates as a digital service, providing insight into rainfall and rain-induced flooding,” he explains, noting that this will help municipalities to determine which areas in a metropolitan will experience the worst flooding and enabling them to decide how to minimise those effects.

Royal HaskoningDHV also offers tools for preparation, including Flash, which is flood forecasting technology that uses real-time rainfall data and disseminates warning messages, either through a website, an app or text messages.