Cyclic weather patterns, a threat to Southern Africa

The Southern African region is facing a recurrent drought and flood challenge due to cyclic weather patterns, made worse by climate variability and change.

due to its heavy dependence on rainfed agriculture and climate-sensitive resources.

The increase in temperatures usually results in a rise in evaporation loses from reservoirs that support urban, rural, industrial and agricultural water needs in the region.

For example, in 2007 evaporation led to extremely low water levels in most dams in Zimbabwe, resulting in many of them being decommissioned.

Declining water levels in Lake Kariba between Zambia and Zimbabwe continue to be a major concern, resulting in low hydropower generation.

Lake Kariba is designed to have minimum levels of between 475,5 and 488,5 metres for hydropower generation.

As of 18 November 2019, the lake level was 477,2m, slightly above the minimum threshold required for power generation.

This was equivalent to about 12 percent of usable storage and was much lower than the 483,8m recorded on the same day the previous year.

In October 2015, Tanzania was forced to switch off all its hydropower plants due to low water levels in the major dams.

As a result of the low water levels, hydro-electricity generation fell to 20 percent of capacity, making it difficult for the dams to operate.

Tanzania, which has significant gas reserves, has since converted its infrastructure in key areas to use mainly natural gas.

Increase in intensity of La Nina occurrences, coupled with acceleration of rising sea levels, pose a great concern to countries with extensive low-lying coastal areas such as Mozambique.

According to the WMO report, over the period 2014-2019 the rate of global mean sea level rise amounted to 5mm per year, substantially faster than the average rate since 1993 of 3,2 mm per year.

More than 60 percent of the Mozambican population lives in low-lying coastal areas.

As such, the rise in sea level poses great risk to their infrastructure, coastal agriculture, key ecosystems and fisheries.

The country is already prone to tropical storms from the Mozambique Channel.

In light of the increasing intensity of El Nino and La Nina as well as impacts of climate change, the establishment of vibrant disaster risk strategies is a priority for southern Africa.

In order to prepare for future hazards, the 39th SADC Summit called on Member States to implement comprehensive multi-year response plans to tackle the recurrent droughts and food insecurity challenges.

In November, SADC and the European Union launched an Intra African, Caribbean and Pacific ( ACP) Global Climate Change Alliance Plus ( GCCA+)

Programme to strengthen capacity of

SADC member states to undertake climate change adaptation and mitigation interventions.

The programme, which is an integral part of the implementation of

SADC regional integration agenda, will support SADC governments, regional organisations, private and public sector to strengthen the capacity of member nations to undertake regional and national adaptation and mitigation actions in response to the challenges posed by climate change and climate variability.

In addition, it will assist in the design of pilot projects on adaptation in several member countries.

The SADC Secretariat is, in collaboration with member countries, developing a strategy for effective coordination of disaster responses.

The proposed SADC Disaster Preparedness and Response Strategy will ensure that mechanisms are put in place and adequate resources are available for the effective management of disasters. — SADC Today.