The South African regulatory framework for urban drought risk management

Abstract

Droughts are complicated natural occurrences that can severely impact communities and ecosystems worldwide. Several urban and rural communities across South Africa have suffered prolonged periods of drought, the most often referred to example being the 2015-2018 Cape Town drought. While Cape Town managed to lower the city's water consumption-levels to avoid the threat of "Day Zero", other urban areas such as Nelson Mandela Bay continue to struggle with severe drought conditions that cause harm to the people of the area, the surrounding environment and state infrastructure. A chapter in this study focuses on Nelson Mandela Bay. As its drought exacerbates the pressure placed on potable water supply, the community's constitutional right of access to water becomes threatened. The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality must cooperate with the other spheres of government to mitigate the impact of drought on the city. To ensure that the relevant spheres of government deal with the drought accordingly, the laws and policies applicable to drought risk management, as extensively explored in this study, should incorporate the three internationally recognised pillars of drought risk management. These pillars serve as a meaningful lens for government to analyse how its laws and policies can properly provide for urban drought risk management. Urban drought risk management in a nutshell refers to the tools and strategies used by key role-players to mitigate the effect of drought in urban areas. This study shows that existing South African law and policy provides for urban drought risk management to an extent. This follows an exploration of four areas of law that were identified to apply to urban drought risk management, namely: local government, disaster risk, environmental, and water law. As alluded to above, the study utilised the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality as a case study to determine if and how this drought-stricken municipality provides for urban drought risk management.