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Flood risks in Johannesburg




Flood risks in Johannesburg

                                      
Juksei river alongside informal settlements in Johannesburg, 2016
                                                                 source: Groundup 

 January this year I went to South Africa, with a group of students from the University of Amsterdam, to do research together with students from the University of Venda. The main goal of the course was obtaining abroad research experience, with a focus on the ethics of researching abroad in and together with other cultures. The subject of the research was food security in the Vhembe region. This already fueled my interest in, besides food security, both water, and development in Africa. Since I have been there, connected with the local community in especially the Vhembe region and have seen some of the difficulties in dealing with water in real life in that region, I will start to focus on South Africa in my blog. In this blog post, I will write about climate change-related water problems and climate justice in Johannesburg. In my coming two blog posts I will focus on respectively the Vhembe region and Cape Town.

Geographically Johannesburg does not seem like a very vulnerable place for the effects of climate change. The city is located on the interior highveld plateau of South Africa. It is relatively far located from the sea and is situated at an altitude of 1740 m (Vogel & Fatti, 2010). However, when you take a closer look, Johannesburg is indeed at risk. Urban flooding already occurs frequently in the city and flood risk as a result of heavy precipitations events are projected to be heavier and more frequent. The stormwater risks are Johannesburg's biggest risk, related to climate change (Hetz, 2015). Research on rainfall and storms in Johannesburg between 1960-2009 indicates a decrease in both thunderstorms and total rainfall, however, the average amount of rainfall per storm increased, resulting in more floods in Johannesburg (Figure 1) (Vogel & Fatti, 2010). Health risks associated with heavy precipitation events are "increased risk of injury, death, as well as infectious respiratory and skin diseases" (Archer et al., 2016). 

Figure 1: Average rainfall from thunderstorms in Johannesburg.
Source: Vogel & Fatti, 2010

In Johannesburg it is not only climate change that put parts of the city in danger. Developmental shortcomings, like inequality and poverty, cause great disparities in climate-related risks and vulnerability among different groups and places (Hetz, 2015). Climate justice is, besides the unequal distribution of environmental goods and bads, also about this uneven development process (Fisher, 2014).  The effects of the floods especially put threats on the health and life of urban populations of marginalized areas (Hetz, 2015). This is partly because of weak urban planning and management in times of urbanizations in African cities and in this case Johannesburg. Week panning together with fast population growth and poverty gives rise to informal settlements. These informal settlements, often in townships, deal with water management problems because of the lack of drainage.  On top of this, is the stormwater often contaminated with greywater (Adegun, 2015).  In addition, these informal settlements are often located nearby streams and rivers that are high risks for flooding during storm events. Picture 1 shows a flood risk map of Johannesburg in 2016. On the map, I have put black circles on places in the City of Johannesburg region with a lot of informal housing (Harrison et al, 2014). As you can see, especially around Soweto but also at the top of the map in township Diepsloot, where a lot of informal housing is located the flood risk is high. An increase in heavy rainfall will put more pressure on a blocked drain and, areas without drainage. Marginalized communities living in poorly constructed informal housing and nearby the water will be at risk (Archer et al., 2016). 
Picture 1: Flood maps Johannesburg
Source: The South African National Space Agence (2016)Access: http://products.sansa.org.za/mapApp/SANSA.html



                                     

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