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Environmental justice in South Africa: the dilemma of informal settlement residents

• Open access
• Published: 07 February 2023
• Volume 88 , pages 3709–3725, ( 2023 )

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• H. N. Kekana   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-2882-7854 1 , 2 ,
• T. M. Ruhiiga 3 ,
• N. N. Ndou 4 &
• L. G. Palamuleni 1  

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The concept of environmental justice is well established in the literature; however, scholars still battle to agree on what it really means. This concept has become more relevant to the studies of informal settlements amongst others. The location and environmental variables in informal settlements suggests a variety of injustices that comes with location, limited access to water, poor or lack of sanitation, challenges with transport availability, accessibility, affordability, and lack of other social amenities. These and many other socio-economic needs forms part of the value chain of environmental justice debates across the world. This paper deals with environmental justice in the informal settlements of Kosmos, in the Madibeng Local Municipality, Bojanala Region in the North-West Province of South Africa. The paper highlights some of the environmental challenges faced by the informal settlement residents such as pollution, waste management (landfill sites, waste collection) sanitation and water provision. The paper explores how the Kosmos informal settlement community has been excluded from decision making processes regarding their own environment and considers the levels of environmental injustices commonly associated with this kind of practice.

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Introduction

Environmental Justice is frequently presented as a relatively new concept worldwide (McGregor, 2009 ). Organisations, environmental activists, and leaders continue to call for environmental justice for communities living under squalid conditions, against mining and other industrial companies that pollute the air and fresh waters, and against the general living conditions of the poor. In South Africa, the term “Environmental Justice” found its first concrete expression in 1992 at a conference organised by Earthlife Africa (McDonald, 2003 ). The conference brought together leading South African Environmentalists and academics from around the world to map out the future of the environmental justice movement in South Africa (McDonald, 2003 ). This conference, and many others around the world, prioritised environmental challenges faced by the poor and exposed inequalities in the distribution of services especially water and sanitation. This inequality persists today especially in informal settlements, where one community will have services while an adjacent one will not have.

In the South African context, environmental justice means social transformation directed at meeting basic human needs and rights, and a central idea in a nascent grassroots movement which is fuelled by the growing contradiction between the discourse of rights and the experience of unmet needs (Cock, 2004 ). While there is no agreed definition on what environmental justice really means, this paper deals with this concept in terms of geographic associations, and focusses on pollution, waste management (landfill sites, waste collection) sanitation and water provision as common variables that affect the informal settlement environments using the Kosmos informal settlement as a study area. Justice in this regard, will refer to the role of authorities in addressing environmental challenges faced by the community of Kosmos informal settlement in the Madibeng Local Municipality, Bojanala District, North West Province, South Africa.

Literature review

Environmental justice (EJ) has been a central concern in a range of disciplines, and both the concept and its coverage have expanded substantially in the past two decades (Schlosberg, 2013 ). According to Khosravaninezhad and Akbari ( 2014 ), Environmental Justice (EJ) concept consists of multifaceted movements, community struggles, and discourses in contemporary societies that seek to reduce environmental risks, increase environmental protections, and generally reduce environmental inequalities suffered by the minority and poor communities. The writer further maintains that the term incorporates ‘environmental racism’ and ‘environmental classism,’ which captures the idea that different racial and socioeconomic groups experience differential access to environmental quality. Scholars also argue that racism plays a critical factor in environmental planning and decision-making processes in the US and other settler nations (Parsons et al., 2021 ).

Defining EJ as a concept with racial connotations resonates with the reality of many indigenous communities around the world and is true to countries like South Africa wherein black people are still subjected to poor housing, lack of land, water, sanitation, and generally poor inhabitable places that they call home. Despite how well-intended the EJ scholarship is, the dominant EJ framework being used by scholars (and applied to indigenous communities around the globe) continues to neglect the unique experiences of indigenous communities and their collective trauma under colonialism (Whyte, 2016 ). Over time, scholars turned to agree about the need to extend the environmental justice concept to accommodate other realities that fits within this notion. Extending the environmental justice framework, which has had limited theoretical rigor, to other geographic and cultural contexts has facilitated a deeper understanding of environmental justice as an evolving and expansive concept (Ranganathan & Balazs, 2015 ).

Holifield ( 2013 ), defined the term environmental justice as geographic associations between pollution or waste sites and low-income or minority communities. The author also acknowledges that the researchers’ discourse continues observed patterns, with no consensus on what constitutes inequality and injustice. Many grassroots activists insist that environmental justice demands the prevention of all forms of toxic pollution (Holifield, 2013 ). For some, environmental justice means access to water (McDonald & Jones, 2018 ), sanitation (Winter, 2017 ), and housing. For example, in Cape Town South Africa, a recent drought documented by Jehanzaib et al. ( 2020 ), threatened the water supply of 4 million residents, many of whom live in the city’s sprawling informal settlements where access to water services is much more unreliable than in the more affluent areas (Enqvist & Ziervogel, 2019 ). This is one example of how environmental justice is defined in the provision and availability of fresh drinkable water for the people of Cape Town. In a study of environmental justice in India, Whyte ( 2011 ) argued that different views exist on the moral basis of standards of environmental justice. For some, environmental justice is seen as a policy matter (Mehta et al., 2014 ), while others view EJ as a social movement, and a call to equal access to the decision-making process (Khosravaninezhad & Akbari, 2014 ).

Schlosberg ( 2013 ) mentioned four dimensions of EJ as distribution, recognition, procedure, and capability. The writer maintains that the distribution of toxics and hazardous waste in the United States was the original focus of distributive justice, and a focal point in the EJ debate. Most of the environmental justice movements around the world have emphasized the need for recognition and their capability to raise and address environmental injustices in many ways and form. Part of this concern was headed in their participation at the 2011 Conference of the Parties (COP 17) held in Durban South Africa. Recognising the rights of communities and their ability and capacity to speak for themselves, is very important in the environmental justice debates. Recognition is also expanded in this paper to include responsibilities of individual human activities towards the environment. We can no longer talk about EJ outside the fiducial responsibilities of human and community activities.

For example, in most communities, there are procedures to be followed in waste disposal. Within the connotations of EJ, the question is whether individuals within communities take responsibility and follow these procedures. This is also a question of education, capability, or willingness to do what is correct to safeguard their own environment. A capabilities approach to justice, which encompasses a range of basic needs, social recognition, and economic and political rights, has offered a broad framework with which we can understand the array of demands of environmental justice movements (Schlosberg, 2013 ).

Environmental justice is linked to a diversity of variables with climate and land use change being at the centre. Global climate change threatens where and how people live (Siders & Ajibade, 2021 ). Mohtat and Khirfan ( 2021 ) talks about ‘climate justice’ as both a social equity concept and practical process for action research. Because of climate change, coastal areas and communities around the world will be increasingly impacted by diverse hazards including sea-level rise, flooding, and eroding shorelines, leading to increasing displacement of people (Tubridy et al., 2022 ). Climate change and its effects such as frequent and intense storm surge events, rising water tables and rising seawater levels in coastal areas have worsened the situation (Apraku et al., 2018 ; Ofosu et al., 2020 ; Ziervogel, 2019 ) cited by Membele et al., ( 2021 ). These are common challenges faced by communities living within the low-lying coastal areas, flood plains and riverbanks, and are practical examples of environmental justice challenges around the world.

Kemper et al. ( 2015 ) argued that, understanding the dynamics of human settlements is a pre-requisite for sustainable development and environmental management. The proliferation of informal settlements has become the norm in South Africa and their frequency is undetermined. Extensive literature has covered the growth, risks, health, and environmental hazards accompanying the formation of informal settlements in cities and urban areas, however, there are still gaps in understanding the daily environmental challenges that informal settlement communities deal with and the environmental justice challenges that prevails in this type of habitat. There has been a general focus on poverty, unemployment, the inability of informal settlement communities to meet daily needs, housing provision and settlement upgrading programmes, as important measures of informal settlement dwellers’ sustainability. These and many others, are crucial environmental habitat success drivers and researchers should consider their effects on the surrounding open land, air, and underground environments in relation to their impact on environmental justice.

A critical issue is that many informal settlements occupy land that is unsuitable for development, which has resulted in the destruction of environmentally sensitive areas (Aguilar & Santos, 2011 ). In many cities, the informal occupation of areas near water reservoirs, areas prone to landslides and flooding, or protected forests is another looming problem (Fernandes, 2011 ). Most illegal occupations, spontaneous or organised, are occurring in inadequate or high-risk areas such as at the margins of small streams and their headwater areas, deactivated mining areas, below transmission lines or along recently constructed highways (Zeilhofer et al., 2008 ). Williams et al. ( 2019 ) cited by Membele et al. ( 2021 ), said that, in South Africa, people in informal settlements are vulnerable to flood hazards because they live in hazardous areas and have poor socio-economic conditions. It must be acknowledged that most of the threats are related to locations where housing or services are inadequate (Nasser & Elsayed, 2018 ). This is part of the “justice” debate and is at the centre of inequalities that informal settlement communities find themselves in.

The ecological implications of these tendencies have been a source of enormous concern due to ecological degradation caused by the persistence of informal settlements lacking basic services (sewerage, water, waste disposal) or ineffective policies for protecting ecosystems (Aguilar & Santos, 2011 ). Additionally, informal settlements are associated with high levels of poverty, illiteracy and crime, inadequate local services, especially healthcare, education, and youth facilities (Nassar & Elsayed, 2018 ). Fernandes ( 2011 ) noted that informal settlements and development have generated fragmented cities and precarious neighbourhoods, profoundly marked by many forms of health and safety hazards, environmental degradation, pollution, and inadequate sanitary conditions; often associated with narrow streets, dense occupation, precarious construction, difficult access and circulation, lack of ventilation, sanitation, and public spaces.

Materials and methods

The research focused on qualitative data with categorically identified variables in the study site. The research used a questionnaire, interviews, and observations methodologies. The aim was to reveal human experiences, and their individual opinions in relation to the identified and targeted human activities. The use of these methods was deliberate and provided the study with a wider opportunity to gather as much relevant information as possible to identify environmental justice as an important factor in the lives of people living in informal settlements.

Description of the study area

The study area encompassed the Kosmos informal settlement located north of the Haartbeespoortdaam along the Simon Berker Avenue that leads into the Kosmos area (DHS, 2006 ) in Madibeng Local Municipality, North-West Province, South Africa (Fig.  1 ). The surrounding area is mainly residential land with both the Kosmos Ridge, Carrabean, Mount Kos, and Kosmos villages located within a 1 km radius. Access to the area in which the informal settlement is located is from the R512 Route located north-west of the settlement (DHS, 2006 ). Kosmos informal settlement includes an estimated population count of about 886 residents (StatsSA, 2011 ). At the time of this publication, the results of the Census 2022 were not yet available as Census 2022 data was still undergoing assessment. This population estimate might have changed over time due to continuous in and out internal migration. The Kosmos informal settlement has a mixed population with most of the people coming from neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Malawi.

Source : North West University, Department of Geography and Environmental Science

Map of the study area.

In Madibeng Local Municipality there are 45 informal settlements spread across the municipal area. The choice of Kosmos informal settlement as a study area for this paper was informed by its unique location within a rich square mile of up-market residential suburbs which made the issue of environmental injustice more pronounced. The study site was selected based on its diversity in terms of growth history and the characteristics of the local environment. The site also reflects a diverse typology, residential outlook, different social and economic setup, and density, and above all, its relevance to the environmental justice debates. The following map (Fig.  1 ) presents the location of Kosmos Informal Settlement.

The Integrated Development Plan (IDP) of Madibeng Local Municipality presents Kosmos informal settlement as an illegal squatter settlement. Residents of the surrounding up-market homes took the informal settlement community matter to court to have them removed from Kosmos and relocated. The court ruled in their favour, however, the community appealed the order. The Madibeng Local Municipality was cited as a second respondent and was ordered by the court to seek alternative land and remove the informal settlement. The municipality identified an area which is about 25 km away from Kosmos to relocate the community. Some community members opted to relocate while the majority remained behind with no intention to move out of Kosmos. Amongst the reasons cited by residents of the up-market homes is that the informal settlement has devalued their residential properties. This is a typical environmental justice matter which deals with locational advantage for the few. There is also a silent racial discrimination practice at play because the informal settlement is predominately occupied by black Africans while the upmarket homes belong to majority white residents.

Sampling and sample population

Given the heterogeneous nature of informal settlement communities, the study opted for a stratified random sampling technique using the population documents obtained from DHS and StatsSA. Members of the targeted community (population) were divided into three homogeneous age groups (strata) namely: 0–20 years, 21–40 years, and 41–60 years. Questionnaires were administered to randomly proportionately selected participants from each age group yielding 90 respondents from the study area (“Appendix 1”).

Data collection

A questionnaire was used to collect data on the following aspects: the demographic and social backgrounds of respondents, the origins of the settlement and background historical locations, duration of stay in the area, perspectives of informal settlers on services, socio-economic conditions, land use and environmental management and perceived or actual impacts of land use changes. The aim was to reveal human experiences, and their individual opinions in relation to the identified and targeted human activities. The use of these methods was deliberate and provided the study with a wider opportunity to gather as much relevant information as possible. The data were supplemented and verified by secondary data obtained from the Department of Human Settlements (DHS) and Statistics South Africa (StatsSA). The DHS data included population, household information, maps, water, and sanitation levels of service (LOS) for Kosmos. In addition, observations helped to identify silent but visible activities within the Kosmos informal settlement study area.

Data analysis

For this study, data from questionnaires was analysed using the XLSTAT data analysis tool. XLSTAT is a suite of statistical add-ins for Microsoft Excel developed in 1993 by Addinsoft to enhance the analytical capabilities of Microsoft Excel. The analysed demographic and socio-environmental characteristics of the respondents and the study areas have been presented in tables as frequencies and percentages.

Environmental justice concerns in Kosmos, are characterised by the inadequate provision of energy resources, risks of the communities to pollution, inadequate waste management services, and susceptibility to water related diseases due to lack of water and sanitation services. Each variable is explained, and results thereof captured respectively.

Deforestation

The Kosmos informal settlement does not have electricity, and the community relies on firewood and paraffin fuelled stoves for household water heating and cooking. Collection of firewood is a daily hustle for the community of Kosmos informal settlement, with twice weekly collections necessary to meet their energy demands. The use of firewood is prevalent within the Kosmos informal settlement and contributes to the high levels of deforestation in and around the area. The level of deforestation in the area is pronounced with encroachments into the greenbelt of Hartbeespoortdaam area along Leloko towards Hekpoort. Figure  2 A–C taken during the field work phase shows residents from Kosmos on their way from fetching firewood.

Source : Author

Collecting firewood in Kosmos informal settlement.

Carrying firewood on the head (Fig.  2 A, B ) is a traditional practice and continues to date as the most economic means to transport firewood, albeit with all its health risks such as skeletal neck and back problems associated with carrying heavy loads (Evans et al., 2013 ). Both women (A) and men (B and C), collect firewood indiscriminately daily. The residents of Kosmos travel long distances (sometimes up to 6 km) on foot in search of firewood, ferrying it on their heads or in wheelbarrows (Fig.  2 C). Lack of electricity and heavy reliance on fuelwood energy presents a form of environmental injustice issue to the Kosmos informal settlement community, while their immediate neighbours in the up-market homes have electricity as energy source. This is a clear sign and practice of environmental injustice between the two adjacent communities.

Some community members in the Kosmos informal settlement collect and sell firewood to generate income, collecting two to three loads per day. A load of wheelbarrow retails between R50 ($3.15) and R100 ($6.28). Figure  3 shows two piles of firewood along the main road in the Kosmos informal settlement.

Piles of firewood in Kosmos informal settlement.

Figure  3 shows piles of firewood that were cut using a saw cut machine. The use of electrical machinery to cut trees for firewood has become prevalent in the area, especially for commercial purposes. The firewood is piled outside the informal settlement for greater visibility to potential customers, and lack of internal roads with truck or tractor makes delivery access difficult. The Kosmos informal settlement represents a settlement contradiction because of its location inside a rich square mile of private residential estates. Figure  4 highlights this contradiction and shows woman carrying firewood, passing an electrified upmarket Carrabean housing estate to the right with part of Hartbeespoortdaam water body visible in the background. Residents of the estates enjoy having electricity as an important source of energy while those living on the other side are subjected to the consequences of environmental injustice exposing them to preventable diseases due to lack of electricity. This is a clear illustration that some communities’ experiences more environmental risks than others (Schlosberg, 2013 ).

Woman carrying firewood (Kosmos informal settlement).

Pollution is a common problem in informal settlements, and at the centre of environmental justice debates worldwide. In the Kosmos informal settlement, air pollution is prevalent due to the use of firewood and paraffin fuel sources for cooking and heating. The fumes from firewood and paraffin stoves results in high levels of air pollution which affects the immediate and surrounding areas and can potentially cause respiratory disorders especially amongst children. Environmental injustice contributes to higher environmental health threats emanating from particulate matter emissions among the informal settlement residents. As mentioned by Olaniyan et al. ( 2017 ), various studies have demonstrated that exposure to ambient air pollutants in early childhood triggers asthmatic attacks and exacerbates other respiratory symptoms. However, the evidence for the extent to which air pollution affects children’s respiratory health is inconclusive suggesting the need for further investigations (Olaniyan et al., 2017 ). During the winter season, the informal settlement is covered by a dark cloud of smoke from the extensive use of firewood for heating purposes. This causes air pollution which is one major environmental hazard, and the smoke extends to the private residents. This is one of the reasons that the private homeowners within the area took the informal settlement community to court to get them evicted from the land.

Figure  5 a shows smoke emitted from firewood cooking during the day. The smoke not only cause air pollution, but gets trapped within the shack building, leaving the shack with lingering residual smoke during daytime and night-time. Figure  5 b shows the use of firewood to boil or heat water during the day. The fireplace is a few meters from the shack, allowing smoke diffusion into the surroundings further contributing to atmospheric air pollution.

Use of firewood for cooking and heating.

Most of the shacks do not have windows and this presents a health hazard and poses high risks for respiratory diseases due to poor ventilation and limited airflow circulation inside the shack. Barbieri et al. ( 2017 ) mentioned an important but neglected part of human habitats within informal settlements, cooking technologies and their impacts on the socio-economic and environmental perspectives. The writers argued that the humanitarian response usually focuses on food availability and access, while food processing is often neglected, and in this framework, cooking technologies play an essential role. Unsustainable and inefficient cooking technologies or practices can have direct impacts on food preparation, and indirect effects on local biomass resource overexploitation and the health of local people and communities (Barbieri et al., 2017 ). Cooking technologies or means of food preparation, have been common avenues of environmental toxicants in informal settlements, especially the use of firewood, coal, charcoal, and paraffin stoves in poor ventilated environments. Due to continuous exposure to contaminated air, Kosmos informal residents face more health problems, and this presents a high level of environmental injustice to the community.

Waste management, waste collection and landfill sites

The Kosmos informal settlement has a landfill site situated about 1.5 km from the informal settlement. There is also one waste collection skip bin as shown in Fig.  6 A provided by the Madibeng Local Municipality. The skip bin is positioned at the side along the informal settlement’s main road. This is the most feasible location for the skip bin due to lack of access roads into the settlement. The municipality is supposed to empty the skip once a week, but collection has not been happening as frequently, with rubbish overflowing and people dumping waste around the skip bin (Fig.  6 A). Figure  6 B shows waste overflow on the ground next to the skip bin.

A Waste skip bin. B Waste overflow outside skip bin.

The community incinerates the waste in the skip bins to manage the volume of waste so that they can continue to use the skip bin. Unfortunately, the burning of waste also damages the skip bin due to excessive heat trapped inside it. During windy days, the waste scatters in and around the informal settlement and onto the main road. Due to the lack of an effective waste management plan, the informal settlement is littered with waste, and can potentially cause airborne and other communicable diseases. Zapata and Campos ( 2014 ) argued that informal settlements in the global South cities are often neglected by formal solid waste collection services. This is a reality within the Kosmos informal settlement with visible disparities between the two communities (Kosmos and Carrabien Estate) disproportionately serviced by the same municipality. Environmental injustices contribute to the disparities in waste collection by the municipality whereby the informal settlement can go for days without refuse collection while the private residential estates get the same service on a weekly basis, albeit being 200 m apart. This is another clear example of what Schlosberg ( 2013 ) refers to as social injustice.

In fact, the refuse removal trucks from Madibeng Local Municipality drive past the Kosmos informal settlement to collect waste from private households, leaving the informal settlement waste bins overflowing. The impact of environmental neglect by the local municipality, considering the Kosmos informal residents as undeserving to waste removal compounds the greater risk of environmental nuisance emanating from uncollected waste. From this perspective, environmental justice alluded to waste collection and management is seen as a legitimate environmental health issue which deserves greater attention from the Madibeng Local Municipality. Mehta et al. ( 2014 ) mentioned that this is due to the contradictory nature of the state and its disregard for marginalised people, unequal experiences of citizenship, elite biases in policy making and planning, resource capture by powerful players as well as significant distributional, recognition and procedural problems.

To challenge the environmental injustice of uncollected waste, some members of the community started a small-scale waste collection and recycling business of plastic and glass bottles. This is part of the attempts by what Gutberlet et al. ( 2016 ) refer to as ‘social entrepreneurship’. These are individuals who collect and recycle waste for a fee as part of their source of income and means of survival as seen in Fig.  7 .

Waste recycling (Kosmos informal settlement).

Gutberlet et al. ( 2016 ) attest that waste pickers in the informal sector represent one of the most widely excluded, impoverished, and disempowered segments of society and are exposed to toxic materials, suffer from prejudice and stigmatisation. Most often, the waste pickers experience difficulties in creating formal cooperatives or associations, lack access to official microfinance and funding opportunities, are susceptible to price market oscillations, and are subject to exploitative relations with intermediaries (Gutberlet et al., 2016 ). Most of the recycled bottles in Kosmos are from beer and other alcoholic beverages, a common challenge in informal settlements. There is a high level of alcohol abuse in the area, and this often leads to social instability, fights, and stabbings. Social justice is highly impacted in this community and there is need to improve their living conditions to impact positively on their livelihood.

Water provision

According to the Water Services Amendment Act 30 of 2004 (Act 30 of 2004), all citizens in South Africa must have access to safe, clean, quality drinking water, and basic sanitation amongst other things. The Act recognises the right of access to basic water supply and sanitation services necessary to ensure sufficient water access and a safe environment, not harmful to residents and their well-being (DHS, 2006 ). The Act further acknowledges that all spheres of government must strive to provide water supply and sanitation services sufficient for subsistence and sustainable economic activity (Act 30 of 2004). The DHS ( 2006 ) report shows the level of service definition for water and sanitation based on the Norms and Standards for Quality Water Services as outlined in the Water Services Act (Act No. 108 of 1997) (DHS, 2006 ). Table 1 was adapted from the DHS ( 2006 ) report, and it shows the level, code, and description for water provision.

The Kosmos informal settlement’s water provision infrastructure is provided and serviced by the Madibeng Local Municipality. The water infrastructure is reticulated and provided through standpipes in between the shacks. Based on Table 1 , the Kosmos informal settlement can be categorised under the Full Level of Service (FLOS) (DHS, 2006 ). The DHS ( 2006 ) report further indicates that the Kosmos informal settlement is situated within the 1 km buffer of a major water body, the Haartbeespoortdaam. Their water connection is part of the main water source for private residents within the Kosmos area, and they seldom experience water supply disruptions. The water reticulation systems fill their water lines first, before entering Mount Kos, Falcon View, and Kosmos Village private residential properties. This is by pure coincidence that the informal settlement is located between the up-market residential properties, as such, some level of justice prevails in terms of water provision in this regard. The challenge remains consistent, and uninterrupted supply of water.

Despite many recent policies and interventions to reduce the number of people without access to sanitation around the world, 2.4 billion people are still living without a toilet (WHO/UNICEF, 2015 ) cited by Winter ( 2017 ). Poor sanitation is a serious public health issue and a violation of people’s human rights (Acharya et al., 2015 ; UN General Assembly, 2010 ). When human rights are violated, justice cannot prevail, and in this case, environmental justice is at stake. Winter ( 2017 ) further noted that while access to sanitation is a global issue, there are large disparities in access across different regions, countries, and social and geographical contexts. Lack of access to sanitation is a persistent problem in sub-Saharan Africa, where less than 20% of the current population has access to sanitation (WHO & UNICEF, 2015 ). Environmental justice demands sanitation provision as part of human rights.

The problem of poor sanitation is also a particularly critical issue for people living in informal settlements, where high population densities combined with a deficiency of sanitation services makes it difficult for residents to avoid contact with human waste (Winter, 2017 ). The South African Water Services Act (Act No. 108 of 1997) provides for basic sanitation that is not harmful to the environment (DHS, 2006 ). According to the 2014 Municipal Integrated Development Plan (IDP), 51% of Madibeng Local Municipality households do not have access to basic sanitation services (DHS, 2006 ). Of those households that have access to water borne sanitation, 83% are being serviced by the Madibeng Local Municipality, mainly at the Brits, Mothutlung, Rietfontein and Letlhabile Wastewater Treatment Works, with the remaining 17% being serviced through private package plants (DHS, 2006 ). Table 2 shows the level, code, and Level of Service Definition for sanitation from the study area.

Kosmos informal settlement uses pit latrines which is a sanitation level below the minimum basic standard (the LLOS level, Table 2 ). This is a violation of environmental justice and a serious health hazard because access to sanitation has a direct bearing on the right to human dignity (Saleem et al., 2019 ). There are few pit latrines in the entire settlement, which are meant to be used by multiple households, leading to potentially serious environmental hazards, airborne and high risk of the spreading of infectious diseases. More alarming is that most of the pit latrines were built using a combination of plastic, wooden boards, and steel corrugated sheets.

Hildebrand and Corburn ( 2015 ), concluded that, “inadequate urban sanitation disproportionately impacts the social determinants of women’s health in informal settlements and, the impacts on women’s health include infectious and chronic illnesses, violence, food contamination and malnutrition, economic and educational attainment, and indignity”. In essence, lack of access to sanitation privacy is a cry for justice especially for vulnerable groups such as women and children who are exposed to danger when using a sanitation facility that is not private. The health of women often correlates with the health of children and the health of communities in general, since many women living in urban informal settlements disproportionately support economic and community activities (Hildebrand & Corburn, 2015 ).

The Madibeng Local Municipality once provided the Kosmos informal settlement community with portable bucket toilets. Typically, the community would use the bucket toilets and the municipality would collect, empty, and clean the toilets weekly. Servicing this bucket toilets never happened and all the toilets provided got filled up. Some members of the community decided to empty and clean a few bucket toilets for continuous use, but this has also not been sustainable. Children in the Kosmos informal settlement use the back of pit latrines for fear of falling inside the pit latrines. When it rains, water collects human waste from around the pit latrines and washes it downstream. Some human waste also flows into the informal settlement homes violating the environmental rights of some residents.

The situation in Kosmos area is complicated because the area is very dry and rocky with hard topsoil surfaces which impedes water drainage. Therefore, when there are heavy rains, water logging and flooding of pit latrines occurs causing environmental hazards, exposing residents to potential water borne diseases. The sloping scale of the land in Kosmos provides for high contamination of groundwater. This presents serious implications of environmental injustices that could arise because of potential groundwater contamination from the use of pit latrines. As mentioned by Okurut and Charles ( 2014 ), sanitation improvement is crucial in saving lives that are lost due to water contamination.

Digging pit latrines inside the yard is common in informal settlements. Figure  8 A is a complete pit latrine building with corrugated sheets. This type of structure is very common in informal settlements and is sold as a complete structure from hardware stores.

A Corrugated pit latrine. B Pit latrine preparations.

Figure  8 B shows a newly dug pit covered with an iron sheet with a bucket going through a central hole on the corrugated sheet. The principle here is to cover the sheet with soaked mud or cement concrete and complete it with a corrugated structure like the one in Fig.  8 A. Each household has a pit latrine and as they get full, they dig new ones next to the old structures. Pit latrines and the use of bucket systems for sanitation remains an environmental hazard and a serious injustice for the Kosmos community.

Understanding the demand for improved sanitation in the local context is critical if facilities are to be continually used (Okurut & Charles, 2014 ). The understanding with the bucket system was that the municipality would periodically return to the sites, collect, empty, clean, and chemically disinfect the bucket toilets and surroundings. However, this has not been happening in Kosmos informal settlements. The buckets stay full for extended periods without being serviced. This is a serious environmental injustice for the Kosmos informal settlement community. Resources are being wasted on installing facilities that are later misused or never used because they do not meet the local demand (Okurut & Charles, 2014 ). The use of pit latrines can cause airborne diseases and affect the community especially children. Environmental justice is about social transformation directed toward meeting human basic needs and enhancing the quality of life, a situation which is a distant dream for the residents of Kosmos. However, it was beyond the scope of this study to explore the extent to which differential sanitation risks contribute to higher rates of morbidity and mortality among the residents in Kosmos.

Environmental justice as a discourse has rapidly expanded its influence and has been applied to both a broadening range of issues, and, increasingly, at a global level (Schlosberg, 2013 ). This paper highlighted a range of environmental “injustices” faced by communities in Kosmos informal settlements. Deforestation, pollution, sanitation, waste collection, waste disposal, lack of landfill sites, and electricity were identified and presented amongst others, as common environmental injustices in the Kosmos informal settlement. Deforestation remains serious in Kosmos, with a large share of its natural forest lost because of firewood collection. Pollution was identified as a common problem, and it ranges from air pollution, due to the use of firewood, paraffin, and coal for energy, to underground water pollution from the use of sub-optimal pit latrines and uncollected waste buckets. Most informal settlements do not have access to electricity, and residents rely mainly on firewood and paraffin stoves for heating and cooking. These energy sources not only cause air pollution but pose greater risks for respiratory diseases and shack fires. Firewood consumption in Kosmos is higher than that of paraffin and coal due to the wider availability and relatively lower cost of the former.

Olaniyan et al. ( 2017 ) argued that paraffin use for cooking/heating is associated with susceptibility to passive smoking posing significant risk factors for adverse asthma outcomes. Paraffin use was associated with a twofold increased likelihood of having significant airway inflammation (Olaniyan et al., 2017 ). Paraffin and electricity were the most common energy sources in informal settlement communities in South Africa, and in many other low- and middle-income countries, among communities of low socioeconomic standing (Olaniyan et al., 2017 ). Similarly, Makonese et al. ( 2016 ), noted that informal settlements predominately use combustion fuels such as coal, wood, and paraffin to meet their domestic energy needs. The use of firewood and paraffin presents fire hazards as seen in many informal settlements across South Africa. Walls et al. ( 2019 ), maintains that in South Africa, the problem of fires in informal settlements is significant. The use of coal was not widely reported in Kosmos owing to its scarcity in the area, although it remains an alternative and available fuel source for heating and cooking.

The inadequate provision of sanitation services in informal settlements is generally worse than that of water and electricity services (Narayanan et al., 2017 ). Takem et al. ( 2009 ) concurs stating that, “the sanitation and water supply services are often inadequate in cities in developing countries.” Dwellings in informal settlements have no access to proper sanitation, and are exposed to indoor and outdoor polluted water that adversely impacts their health (Yuen, 2007 ). This statement supports the findings in Kosmos where leaking water pipes present the risk of water contamination. Inadequate drainage of storm water, greywater, and sewage plagues informal settlement dwellers throughout the developing world (Jiusto & Kenney, 2016 ). The dilemma to innovate and implement drainage solutions in informal settlements is further exacerbated due to the following physical challenges: densely packed shack homes, minimal open spaces, and social challenges associated with the often contentious, turbulent, and legally uncertain nature of informal settlements (Jiusto & Kenney, 2016 ). This statement supports the findings in the Kosmos informal settlement where narrow passages and no internal access roads for service vehicles were observed. Lack of access roads is a serious environmental injustice and community members walk a distance to the main road as they cannot access facilities and emergency services such as ambulances within their locality.

Informal settlements present a range of challenges from sanitation provision, including low incomes, insecure tenure, low education levels, difficult topography, and transitory populations (Okurut & Charles, 2014 ). In their study of sanitation services in Cape Town (South Africa), Mels et al. ( 2009 ) concluded that the main barriers to the implementation of proper sanitation systems were the non-permanent status of the informal settlements, high service maintenance costs, and their unsuitable location. Despite these challenges, Evans and Tremolet ( 2010 ) concluded that sanitation interventions need to address the local demand to ensure that facilities built are used to realise their full public health benefits.

Isunju et al. ( 2016 ), argued that informal settlements pose a high risk of spreading communicable diseases like cholera and dysentery due to poor sanitation conditions and overcrowding. The lack of sanitation services plays a major part in the spread of diseases (Napier, 2007 ). Solid waste collection, landfill sites, and waste disposal remains disproportionate and unsustainable within the Kosmos informal settlement. Ogwueleka ( 2009 ), cited by Maiyaki et al. ( 2018 ), concluded that solid waste needs to be appropriately managed to ensure general human wellbeing and environmental safety. Despite the growing awareness of the potential threat that poor handling of solid waste poses to both human health and the environmental safety, solid waste management has not been given proper attention in developing nations (Maiyaki et al., 2018 ). This statement supports the findings in the Kosmos study area whereby waste collection was the most identified problem, and points to the failure by local government to provide this service. Solid waste management is given low priority in developing countries because they are confronting other ‘more pressing’ and immediate challenges such as high infant mortality, staggering rates of HIV/AIDS cases and difficulties in providing basic amenities such as potable water and reliable energy sources (Tukahirwa et al., 2010 ). If waste is collected and transported, due to lack of sanitary landfills, the waste usually ends up at improper waste disposal sites where it poses a further hazard to the environment and human health (Katusiimeh et al., 2012 ). This practice perpetuates the high levels of environmental injustice in poor communities. Alleviating the chronic and acute human health and wellbeing problems in informal settlements is a key motivation for upgrading interventions and meeting the demand for environmental justice for all (French et al., 2021 ).

The Kosmos informal settlement is exposed and at greater risk from water related environmental consequences. Water availability has been part of the literature on sustainable development (Olaniyan et al., 2017 ) and is even cited in the Millennium Development Goals as an important resource to human life. The Kosmos informal settlement was categorised under the Full Level of Service (FLOS), and this is mainly due to its proximity to the private residential properties within the Kosmos area, and that the municipal water source passes through the informal settlement towards the private residences. This presented the settlement with some level of environmental justice in terms of water provision. Sustainable human development is premised upon the accessibility and availability of socio-economic services, equally important is sustainable access to water, which is intrinsically a backbone to life’s sustenance (Muzondi, 2014 ).

Water provision is universally accepted as the panacea for sustainable human development (Butuala et al., 2010 ) cited by Muzondi ( 2014 ). For justice to continuously prevail, there is a high demand for constant water supply in Kosmos informal settlement. Wats ( 2003 ) argued that the sustainability of water provision also calls for the adoption of proper service planning strategies and approaches in informal settlements. Traditionally, government agencies are vested with the responsibility of providing universal access to services such as water, sanitation, and electricity (Narayanan et al., 2017 ). Unfortunately, this has not been the case in the Kosmos study site and remains part of the environmental justice debates for informal settlement communities.

The provision of water has caught the attention of many scholars, and researchers continue to discuss it as one of the environmental justice matters that requires urgent attention. Water scarcity has been part of developmental challenges across the world and remains a serious challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Millennium Development Goals, especially goals 7 and 8, state that any intervention in informal settlements must ensure environmental sustainability in human settlements which includes access to all adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services (Nassar & Elsayed, 2018 ). With the advent of Covid-19, Corona virus disease, the need for constant and continuous water supply cannot be overemphasized. Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions reduce the incidence of water-borne and communicable diseases often yielding widespread health improvements for the whole community (Corban & Karanja, 2014 ). For many scholars, provision of health improving services is an important antidote for environmental justice.

Conclusions

This paper presented environmental justice as one of the central but silent challenge that communities around the world continue to fight for. From the Aboriginal communities of India (McGregor, 2009 ), to the coastal communities of Cape Town (Jehanzaib et al., 2020 ), there seem to be a common need for communities to resist environmental injustices. The Kosmos case study findings and observations show that informal settlement’ challenges go far beyond the community’s ability to provide for themselves. This ability is also marred by many other pressing socio-economic needs such as health, food security, education for children, electricity, shelter, sanitation, water provision and security of tenure. The paper provides two lessons for the future of informal settlements and how to go about dealing with environmental injustices such as air pollution, sanitation, waste management and water provision facing communities in these settlements. Firstly, it exposes the notion that the government knows what the people want, and therefore, no need to consult them. There is also a general perception about the level of education for people living in informal settlements. They are often viewed as uneducated, backward, and generally have no sense of planning. Ntiwane and Coetzee ( 2018 ), maintains that there is need for a multi-stakeholder democratic planning procedure (PJ) that involves all stakeholders in the planning and implementation process, regardless of social structure and power, thereby providing equal access to deliberation, information, and consensus-building. Recognising the role of communities is important for EJ to prevail.

Provision of pit latrines in the Kosmos informal settlement that were subsequently not maintained was not only a waste of resources that could have been used to improve the sanitation facilities of the Kosmos community, but a failure by the government to provide basic services to the community. A community survey could have provided the municipality with a better and sustainable long-term sanitation solution for the informal settlement. The area has no running sewer to connect a water borne sanitation system, but the use of a common, well-built septic tank system is a possible long-term option and solution for the Kosmos informal settlement. This system is being used inside the private residence of Kosmos Village and some rural schools albeit with all its potential challenges, but it works. Improving sanitation in this regard will present some level of environmental justice to the Kosmos informal settlement community.

There is a large body of water behind the informal settlement (Hartbeespoortdaam), that could be utilised for a well-engineered sanitation wastewater system. The second lesson learned in this paper is the need to investigate challenges in informal settlements to allow an integrated sustainable solution to be delivered. Community participation and recognition remains at the centre of this integrated approach. Environmental justice remains a challenge for informal settlement communities and remains central to development initiatives. Poor communities still endue high environmental risks and remain subjected to poor living conditions. Distributive and social injustice emerged as prevalent in the Kosmos informal settlement. Decisions to support environmental justice for sustainable communities should incorporate the people’s voices, to ensure applicability and utilisation of any intervention. It is sometimes easier to use those affected to come up with solutions or to drive proposed solutions affecting their daily lives.

Data availability

The original contributions presented in the study are included in the article/supplementary material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the residents of Kosmos informal settlement for allowing us to engage them and conduct this research. We equally express our profound gratitude to the reviewers, whose constructive views and comments have tremendously improved the quality of this manuscript.

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HN Kekana Conceptualization, Data curation, Investigation, Methodology, Visualization, funding acquisition, writing—review and editing, TM Ruhiiga contributed to methodology, formal and statistical analysis, reviewed, and edited the draft manuscript; NN Ndou Critical analysis, writing—review and editing; LG Palamuleni: Data curation, Methodology, Formal analysis, Validation, Supervision, Writing—review and editing. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

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Kekana, H.N., Ruhiiga, T.M., Ndou, N.N. et al. Environmental justice in South Africa: the dilemma of informal settlement residents. GeoJournal 88 , 3709–3725 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10808-z

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The next decade of environmental science in South Africa: a horizon scan

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Environmental systems are in constant flux, with feedbacks and non-linearities catalysed by natural trends and shocks as well as human actions. This poses challenges for sustainable management to promote human well-being. It requires environmental understanding and application that can accommodate such fluxes and pressures, as well as knowledge production systems and institutions that produce graduates with appropriate skills. In this article we consider these challenges in the South African context. Firstly, we summarise six significant environmental realisations from the last decade of environmental science internationally and question what they mean for the teaching of environmental science and research into environmental systems in South Africa in the near future. We then consider these lessons within the context of a horizon scan of near-term pressing environmental issues in South Africa. These include water-use efficiency, poverty, food security, inequities in land and resource access, urbanisation, agrochemicals and water quality, promoting human well-being and economic adaptability in the face of climate change, and imbuing stronger environmental elements and stewardship into the integrated development planning processes and outcomes. Lastly, we consider the knowledge areas and skills that environmental graduates will require to be able to confront these problems in South Africa and simultaneously contribute to international debates and understandings around the complexity of environmental systems and how to manage them.

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The infusion of environmental education into a new South African curriculum marks a historic shift from the past where it was marginalised from mainstream, formal education. Through the Environmental Education Policy Initiative (EEPI), environmental education was included as a key principle in the most recent government white paper on education and training. This policy process provided a platform for the establishment of an Environmental Education Curriculum Initiative (EECI) to ensure that environmental concerns form part of the new outcomes-based curriculum (OBE) for South Africa. Many members of the environmental education community have been actively involved in EECI activities and environmental education and OBE was one of the key features at the most recent conference of the Environmental Education Association of Southern Africa (EEASA). In this article we attempt to highlight the parallels between environmental education and OBE and raise a critical debate around the institutionalisation of environmental education in South Africa.

Kenneth Lynch

Many previous studies have demonstrated the importance of fieldwork for learning in Geography and related disciplines such as Environmental Science, Environmental Management (for example, McEwen and Harris 1996; Panelli and Welch 2005), and in particular the benefits of internationalisation in field courses (Nairn et al. 2000). Much of what field courses are attempting to achieve is to situate the theory of learning in the practical application of observing, experiencing and measuring in the real world in order to get an understanding of the ‘messy’ challenges geography provides. This chapter illustrates the successful example of a field course which focused on the theme of sustainable development in a range of realworld contexts that were completely unfamiliar to the students. The result has been that they are challenged to apply their geographical understandings gained from previous campus and field course learning in places with which they are familiar, to a situation that offers a challenging and very different context. This development is about a field course to South Africa where students are confronted with the challenges of sustainable development in a very wide range of post-Apartheid contexts. The result is a potentially transformative learning experience.

Local Environment

Dianne Scott

Sustainable development is now widely accepted as a policy framework in planning and development both internationally and in South Africa. Within this framework, technocentric scientific approaches to environmental management, which are reflective of weak ecological modernization, have dominated environmental practice both in the developed and developing world. South Africa is a country in transition and as a result environmental law and policy have undergone significant reform. However, implementation and practice remains embedded within a weak ecological modernization approach. Through the lens of two case studies reflecting changing approaches and practices within state institutions, this paper explores the shifts taking place in the construction, adaptation and application of policy frameworks and tools used in the drive towards sustainability in South Africa. The research uses critical approaches to ecological modernization (Hajer, 1995; Christoff, 1996) and deliberative policy analysis (Hajer and Wagenaar, 2003; Hajer, 2003, 2003; Hajer, 2004) to explore these shifts. It suggests that the shift towards strong ecological modernization has taken place as a result of the adaptation of international practice to the South Africa context, the global acceptance of more integrated approaches, the opportunities for change that ‘institutional ambiguity’ and ‘multi-signification’ create, and pockets of innovation that have developed when intellectual actors shift the boundaries of environmental practice.

South African Journal of Science

Anton Nahman

All nations face the challenge of simultaneously meeting two imperatives: developing their economies to meet the needs of their people, and ensuring that the productivity and viability of the underlying ecosystems and ecosystem services are maintained at healthy levels over time. Essentially, these imperatives are enshrined in the concept of sustainable development, which is commonly defined as 'Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.' 1 From an economic perspective, sustainable development requires that social welfare (well-being) is at least maintained over time. One way of interpreting this is in terms of maintain-ing the stock of productive capital upon which social welfare depends, 2–4 which includes human capital (intangible skills and knowledge) and natural capital (ecological systems and natural resource deposits), as well as manufactured capital (tangible produced assets). Under ...

Marinda Avenant

The 2nd African Water Symposium, in conjunction with the 6th Orange River Basin Symposium, was held on the campus of the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, on 7 and 8 October 2015. The theme of the symposium was 'systems thinking in environmental water resources management', with the aim of evaluating and debating a holistic approach to water management in southern Africa. The symposium included a panel discussion that was originally intended to define a roadmap towards effective water resources management, but it soon took on a life of its own and evolved into a discussion on how to develop and train the next generation of managers and scientists to tackle the current challenges being faced by the wider water sector. This commentary serves as a record of the main themes identified during the panel discussion and begins by setting the South African context and identifying the plurality of values and opinions held by stakeholders in the post-apartheid water sector. I...

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5 steps to save Africa from climate change

.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo{-webkit-transition:all 0.15s ease-out;transition:all 0.15s ease-out;cursor:pointer;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;outline:none;color:inherit;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:hover,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-hover]{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;}.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo:focus,.chakra .wef-1c7l3mo[data-focus]{box-shadow:0 0 0 3px rgba(168,203,251,0.5);} Caroline Kende-Robb

.chakra .wef-9dduvl{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-9dduvl{font-size:1.125rem;}} Explore and monitor how .chakra .wef-15eoq1r{margin-top:16px;margin-bottom:16px;line-height:1.388;font-size:1.25rem;color:#F7DB5E;}@media screen and (min-width:56.5rem){.chakra .wef-15eoq1r{font-size:1.125rem;}} Future of the Environment is affecting economies, industries and global issues

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Stay up to date:, future of the environment.

All countries stand to lose if we fail to reach a deal in Paris that restricts global warming to 2˚C. But African countries will lose the most – because they are the most vulnerable.

Global warming has exacerbated the climate risk that Africa has long faced because of its high levels of background poverty, its farmers’ dependence on rainfall, its weak infrastructure and its lack of social welfare “safety nets”.

Climate justice and basic human solidarity demand international cooperation to contain these risks. Africa has done little to cause global warming – its greenhouse gas emissions are only 4% of the world’s total. But it is already facing the worst effects of climate change.

Viewed from a different perspective, climate change provides African governments with an added incentive to put in place policies that are long overdue – and to demonstrate leadership on the international stage. This is already happening: countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda have already developed climate-resilient strategies to reduce poverty, raise productivity and cut emissions.

Climate change demands that we rethink the relationship between energy and development. This is crucial in sub-Saharan Africa, where 621 million people lack access to electricity . The carbon-intensive energy systems that drive our economies have set us on a collision course with our planetary boundaries. Now we have an opportunity in Africa to avoid that collision.

For Africa, two priorities stand out at the Paris climate summit. First, it is crucial to forge an ambitious deal that delivers on the commitment to keep global warming below 2˚C. Second, the climate agreement must meet Africa’s needs for global finance and support to respond to the climate challenge.

The Africa Progress Report, 2015, Power, People, Planet: Seizing Africa’s Energy and Climate Opportunities , identifies a range of practical measures for supporting low-carbon development while expanding power generation and accelerating progress towards universal access to energy. It also sets out an agenda for the Paris climate summit, linking international action to African strategies for climate-resilient development. Five key steps are essential for achieving climate justice for Africa:

Phase out fossil fuel subsidies Many rich countries say they want a climate deal. But at the same time they spend billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money subsidising the discovery of new coal, oil and gas reserves . These governments should be pricing carbon out of the market through taxation, not subsiding a climate catastrophe. G20 countries should set a timetable for phasing out fossil fuel subsidies, with a ban on exploration and production subsidies by 2018.

Clean up climate finance Africa is poorly served by a climate finance system with as many as 50 funds operating under a fragmented patchwork of mechanisms that does little to bring in private investment. Funding for adaptation must be increased and consolidated. Facilities for financing mitigation and supporting low-carbon development – notably the Clean Technology Fund and the Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Low Income Countries Programme – should be restructured to be more responsive to Africa’s needs and opportunities.

Drive Africa’s low-carbon energy transition African governments, investors, and international financial institutions must significantly scale up investment in energy – especially renewable energy – to unlock Africa’s potential as a global low-carbon superpower. A ten-fold increase in power generation is required to provide all Africans with access to electricity by 2030. This would reduce poverty and inequality, boost growth, and provide the climate leadership that is sorely missing at the international level. Africa’s innovative ‘energy entrepreneurs’ are already seizing the investment opportunities across the continent.

Leave no-one behind Africa’s energy systems are inefficient and unjust. They provide subsidized electricity for the wealthy, unreliable power supplies for firms and very little for the poor. Governments should act to achieve universal access to energy by 2030, which means providing access for an additional 645 million people through connections to the grid or decentralized mini-grid or off-grid provision. Every government should map the populations that lack access and identify the most effective routes for delivery. Better and more accessible energy can also power up Africa’s agriculture. Governments should work with the private sector to develop the innovative business models needed to deliver affordable energy to people who live on incomes of less than $2.50 a day – a market opportunity worth $10 billion a year .

Adopt new models of planned urbanization As the world’s most rapidly urbanizing region, Africa has opportunities to develop more compact, less polluted cities, alongside safer and more efficient public transport. Economies of scale and rising urban incomes have the potential to expand opportunities for providing renewable energy and achieving universal access to basic services. Linking African cities to the growing range of global city networks, including the “C40” group of cities, could unlock new opportunities for exchanging knowledge, building capacity and providing finance. Governments, multilateral agencies and aid donors should work together to strengthen the creditworthiness of cities, while developing innovative partnerships for clean energy.

As Kofi Annan, chair of the Africa Progress Panel states, “Countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and South Africa are emerging as front-runners in the global transition to low carbon energy. Africa is well positioned to expand the power generation needed to drive growth, deliver energy for all and play a leadership role in the crucial climate change negotiations.”

The COP21 summit in Paris provides a platform for raising the global ambition, setting a course that avoids climate disaster and showcasing Africa’s pathway for a future powered by inclusive low-carbon energy.

Have you read? 5 things Europe must do for a renewable future Paris climate talks: are we aiming high enough? 4 unanswered questions from the Paris climate talks

This commentary was first published in the Huffington Post .

Author: Caroline Kende-Robb, Executive Director, Africa Progress Panel

Image: A windmill pumps water from a borehole near Graaf Reinet in the Karoo October 11, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

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Waste Management in 2024: South Africa’s Challenges, Goals, and the Road to a Circular Economy

Population growth, unfunded waste services, landfill airspace depletion, inadequate waste diversion and outdated infrastructure. These are but a few of the major challenges that the South African waste industry grapples with in 2024.

But Mpendulo Ginindza, President of the Institute of Waste Management of South Africa (IWMSA), says not all is lost and that many positive strides are being made towards achieving a circular economy by 2030.

She adds that one of the biggest steps creating an enabling environment for change was the 2008 implementation of the NEM Waste Act.

“The Act’s focus was the waste management hierarchy, which encourages reducing waste to landfill,” she explains. “We have seen a flood of regulations in response to this. Needless to say, our legislation is amongst the best in the world. However, implementing and enforcing this legislation is our challenge.”

The Challenges: Waste Minimisation and Public Awareness The issue of diminishing landfill airspace is one that South Africa continues to face – especially in major metros.

Ginindza says Cape Town, eThekwini, and Ekurhuleni are already experiencing increases in the cost of moving waste as their landfills reach capacity. She adds that locally, the focus still falls too much on waste management with not enough attention given to actual waste minimisation.

“In most cases the waste collection and disposal company provides that service, but yet it is not their core business,” Ginindza explains, adding that households are generally not ‘separating at source’, with waste pickers doing only some of that work.

“Education and awareness also need to be driven in schools. This situation requires everyone’s involvement – from households to business.”

Another area that the IWMSA believes can be improved is partnerships and collaborations. “South Africa must emphasise the need to develop capacity, not only locally, but also in the region. We miss out on funding opportunities, not because there is no need to fund projects, but because there is no capacity or capability.”

The Successes: EPR Regulations and e-Waste Diversion Ginindza says partnerships between government and private sector are yielding results – such as Producer Responsibility Organisations (PROs) implementing and expanding programs for waste diversion.

“Part of their role is to work with municipalities to build infrastructure for managing waste,” she adds. “Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regulations have also been implemented and producers are now responsible for the entire lifecycle of their products which includes their waste management. “And although EPR does not solve all the country’s waste management problems, it is a crucial tool.

“In South Africa, EPR focuses on waste picker integration and circular economy. We should therefore acknowledge the role that waste pickers have played in waste diversion.” A lot of effort was also made to make people aware of the dangers of e-waste.

“It is now restricted from being disposed of to landfill, with a Waste from Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) policy under development. It will provide guidance and help to drive proper disposal and recycling.”

In conclusion, Ginindza says small businesses that want to make sure they comply, can reach out to the IWMSA. “We provide support through our training programmes and engaging different stakeholders through seminars and conferences. By supporting the waste sector, we can ensure proper waste management and maintain a clean environment.”

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ENVIRONMENTAL LAW South Africa has robust legislation and effective policies in place

YOLANDI KRUGER Several factors are driving businesses towards embracing the circular economy

CHRIS WHYTE South Africa has a significant problem with waste management

BONTE EDWARDS Establishing a baseline understanding of the generated waste and assigning costs to it is the initial step

KEITH ANDERSON It's essential for government, industry and consumers to shift their perspective

SUZAN OELOFSE Until there's a clear distinction regarding what falls under the definition of waste, there remains confusion about what must be managed under the Waste Act

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20th October 2023

By: Simone Liedtke

Creamer Media Social Media Editor & Senior Writer

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At the heart of South Africa’s environmental discussion is the pressing need to embrace a circular economy, but such a shift demands practical collaboration, inventive thinking and a resolute commitment to sustainable practices.

During a recent Creamer Media-hosted webinar on waste management and the circular economy, the Institute of Waste Management of Southern Africa’s Chris Whyte , who facilitated the discussion, stressed that South Africa has “a significant problem with waste management”.

The issue is multifaceted in nature and will involve the management of various waste streams, including electronic waste (e-waste) laden with precious metals and plastics, besides others.

“It’s essential to understand the core principles driving the circular economy. It’s about eliminating waste and pollution through thoughtful design, and it emphasises the need to circulate products and materials, maximising their value and life span,” Whyte added.

The circular economy – supported by renewable energy, alternative materials and a resilient system – rests on the principle of regenerating nature, he said.

The circular economy goes beyond waste management or recycling, and rather “signifies a comprehensive approach to sustainable transformation, encompassing social, environmental and economic aspects”.

It extends its influence across diverse sectors, such as energy, water, waste, agriculture, mining, manufacturing and finance, the positive outcomes of which “ripple into areas like health, education, environment and biodiversity”, added Whyte.

EnviroServ Waste Management on-site national commercial manager Yolandi Kruger noted that several factors are driving businesses towards embracing the circular economy.

The foremost concern is resource scarcity in the depleted natural world, which necessitates a shift away from reliance on such virgin materials to ensure a stable supply chain, she added.

Additionally, traditional linear economy models contribute to pollution, greenhouse- gas emissions and habitat destruction.

“Embracing the circular economy significantly reduces the environmental footprint, as is evident in the example of recycled paper requiring significantly less energy and water, compared to virgin paper production.”

Kruger added that businesses are motivated by cost savings achieved through buying recycled materials and benefiting from recycling rebates.

Therefore, consumer demand plays “a vital role”, as environmentally conscious consumers increasingly prefer products made from recycled materials.

“Embracing the circular economy enhances a company’s reputation, demonstrating dedication to sustainable practices. Ethical responsibility is also a driving force, urging businesses and individuals to prioritise waste reduction, reuse and sustainability, thereby ensuring a more responsible and sustainable future,” she added.

Mindset Shift

Circular Vision sustainability consultant and associate Bonte Edwards advocated for a shift in perspective towards materials management and innovative design opportunities, instead of adhering to traditional end-of-pipe waste management.

She suggested various avenues that – depending on specific business requirements – include revising procurement strategies, implementing recirculating systems, enhancing resource efficiency in production, integrating reuse systems within the company and supply chain, and considering take-back systems.

However, a fundamental realisation is that effective management starts with measurement, she emphasised.

“Establishing a baseline understanding of the generated waste and assigning costs to it is the initial step. Many clients find this daunting, which is why we assist in developing clear guidelines and provide support to simplify the process. Our goal is to demystify the complexities, making it easier for businesses to navigate and embrace sustainable waste management practices.”

Edwards acknowledged the favourable conditions within the waste management sphere, praising South Africa’s robust legislation and effective policies currently in place, singling out the positive impact of extended producer responsibility (EPR) regulations.

She also commended the presence of high-quality recycling infrastructure, citing, for example, advanced bottle plants for materials such as aluminium and steel packaging.

However, Edwards underscored the critical need for enhanced separation at source, urging better practices at the household and business levels to ensure the quality of recyclables, emphasising the pivotal role of product and packaging design and advocating for designs that prioritise recyclability and, ideally, reuse.

The regulations under discussion represent a potent tool, provided they are implemented effectively, scientific research and development organisation Council for Scientific and Industrial Research principal researcher in the Sustainability, Economics and Waste Research Group Suzan Oelofse responded.

She highlighted the call directed at producer responsibility organisations to collaborate more actively with municipalities: “The aim is to establish efficient source separation and collection systems, thereby ensuring that municipalities can no longer absolve themselves of responsibility, claiming recycling as an unfunded mandate.”

She suggested ‘waste integration’ as another avenue for progress; while many municipalities are actively engaged nationwide, they are unable to provide services or collect recyclables in certain areas, meaning “there is an opportunity to collaborate with the proactive informal sector”.

To facilitate this collaboration, guidelines are being developed to serve as a roadmap to assist municipalities in moving forward. Oelofse said it is essential that the definition of waste be clarified.

“Until there’s a clear distinction regarding what falls under the definition of waste, as dictated by law, there remains confusion about what must be managed under the Waste Act. This lack of clarity hampers progress toward a circular economy. The resolution of this issue is critical for meaningful advancements in sustainable waste management practices.”

Collaborative Effort

While tackling these challenges can appear overwhelming, industry organisation EPR Waste Association of South Africa founder and CEO Kevin Anderson said it “demands collective effort and accountability for our responsibilities. Together, we possess the power to make a substantial impact”.

He warned that e-waste – encompassing anything electrical or plug-operated and the fastest-growing waste stream, outpacing other categories fivefold – poses a significant global challenge.

The complexity arises from the diverse elements constituting e-waste, as equipment categorised as electrical and electronic equipment “is generally inert and poses minimal environmental risk when properly managed”.

However, challenges arise when these items are exposed to the elements, especially in countries such as South Africa, where e-waste recycling rates vary from 7% to 12%, depending on the district, with a considerable portion, including valuable items, ending up, illegally, in landfills.

Despite legislation introduced last year prohibiting e-waste disposal, the problem persists, Anderson lamented, noting that there are also significant challenges associated with the export of such discarded valuable items.

“This challenge is particularly crucial for South Africa to address, given its abundant natural resources and population. With the newly implemented EPR regulations, South Africa is taking strides toward a circular economy.”

Anderson firmly believes that an enabling environment has been created in the country, but advocates for a significant shift in mindset.

“We must recognise that Eurocentric models do not offer tailored solutions for Africa and South Africa. As part of BRICS, we can draw inspiration from their successful approaches. These countries share similarities with us in terms of population, demographics and ways of thinking.”

For instance, India offers practical and cost-effective waste treatment solutions that align with South Africa’s needs. Instead of buying expensive recycling plants from Europe, equally effective solutions can be sourced from India at about 20% of the price.

“It’s essential for government, industry and consumers to shift [their] perspective. We need to acknowledge our unique context and explore solutions that are not only effective but also economically viable for addressing our waste management challenges,” Anderson noted.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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Most concerning environmental issues in South Africa

South Africa currently faces many environmental issues, including global warming, air pollution, biodiversity loss, deforestation, desertification and waste. These environmental issues represent a threat to people’s health and livelihoods.

Soil erosion, pollution and drought impede South African farmers’ ability to make a living and also food security. Global warming increases the spread of disease, as well as heat-related illnesses. A 2021 study found that global warming is probably causing over five million excess deaths each year .

South Africa’s environmental issues are not mutually exclusive – they are mostly connected. For example, deforestation is an environmental issue in its own right, but it also contributes to soil erosion and global warming, while also destroying protection against air pollution. The linked nature of the problems means we should look for shared causes and solutions rather than treating them in isolation. Fossil fuel use is the main cause of global warming, but it also causes air pollution and water pollution . A shift to cleaner energy sources could solve many problems at once.

Air pollution: The silent killer

Scientists have described air pollution as “ the silent killer “. It causes over seven million premature deaths annually. Immediate exposure to air pollution causes obvious symptoms, such as coughing and difficulty breathing, so the link to respiratory problems is obvious.

But, air pollution is linked to many other health problems , potentially affecting every organ in the body. Smaller particles are the most dangerous because they can find their way into the bloodstream to expose every cell in the body. It has even been linked to cognitive problems , which is particularly risky for a child’s brain that is still developing.

South Africa was ranked 39 th globally for its air pollution in 2021 , but this figure hides the true health impact. While people in rural areas may breathe cleaner air, industrial areas have emissions well above the global average. A 2019 Greenpeace report found that Mpumalanga is the world’s worst hotspot for power plant emissions of nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide.

Patrick Hendry

The most dangerous air pollutants are fine particles of less than 2.5 microns in width, which are small enough to enter the bloodstream. These are known as PM 2.5.   The coal-fired power plants and industrial cluster in Mpumalanga represent a substantial public health risk because of the volume of PM 2.5 generated.

In 2019, Greenpeace used satellite data to rank Mpumalanga as the worst place in the world for industrial nitrous oxide pollution . This is dangerously close to the Gauteng City Region, home to nearly a quarter of South Africa’s population . As a result, air pollution from Mpumalanga has caused premature deaths in Johannesburg and other areas, such as Tshwane and Ekurhuleni .

A 2021 study found that around 50,000 South Africans die each year from causes linked to air pollution . This environmental issue is clearly linked to the combustion of fossil fuels , primarily from coal plants.

Global warming and extreme weather events

The warming of the Earth causes various environmental issues. One of the effects of global warming is an increased rate of extreme weather events, such as drought, flooding and storms.

When the Durban area was flooded in April 2022, it was described as “ one of the worst weather storms in the history of our country ”. Yet, in May 2022, it happened again. Hundreds of people in and around Durban were forced to flee their homes as flooding turned parts of the city into “ inaccessible islands ”. Climate change makes this kind of extreme weather event more common. “ Once in a lifetime” events become regular occurrences .

Global warming also increases the frequency of drought. South Africa has an average annual rainfall of around 464 millimetres , making it a relatively dry country. If it gets even drier due to global warming, this could cause water stress. In 2019, there were calls for the town of Harding to be declared a disaster area after water sources dried up . This kind of situation will be more common in a warming world . Water stress is likely to hit the farming sector hard. This will hurt the economy and could lead to food shortages.

Mike Erskine

Biodiversity loss and climate change

The Bioversity Finance Initiative ranks South Africa as the third most biodiverse country in the world . Approximately 10 per cent of the world’s known plant species are from South Africa. The Cape region alone has over 1,500 genera of plants – 30 per cent of which are not native to any other part of the world . South Africa is also home to a wide variety of animal life, including rare and endangered species. Scientists classify our country as “megadiverse” because it contains many of the world’s species .

Climate change threatens this biodiversity. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns that if global warming reaches 2°C over pre-industrial levels, many species will find over half the areas they currently occupy to be uninhabitable. 18 per cent of insects, 16 per cent of plants and eight per cent of vertebrates could lose half their habitats. South Africa would lose its identity as a country world-famous for its species richness, which is likely to affect tourism. Furthermore, losing pollinating insects could harm an agricultural sector already struggling with water stress.

Species loss will still occur if we succeed in keeping global warming below 1.5°C but to a much lesser extent.

Evan Demicoli

Waste management is one of the more serious environmental issues that South Africa faces. Household waste is increasing because of a growing population. Under the South African Constitution, municipalities are responsible for refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste disposal . Unfortunately, however, they are struggling to do this, as budgets are not enough to cover all the basic services. Therefore, waste management competes for funding with essentials, such as water, sanitation and electricity. South African households generate about 12.7 tonnes of waste annually. 3.67 million tonnes of this goes to illegal dumping sites instead of going through formal waste collection systems.

If we divert more waste from landfills and utilise the materials, we could unlock a value of R17 billion per year . But, at the moment, between 75 per cent  and 90 per cent of solid waste goes to landfills.

Electronic waste is a growing problem as technology becomes more affordable. The World Economic Forum says that “e-waste” is the fastest-growing waste stream on the planet . South Africa generates about 6.2 kilograms of e-waste per person annually, and only 12 per cent of that is recycled . The materials in e-waste are valuable, but they can be toxic. Unfortunately, many people dismantling electronics to reclaim these materials for resale are not employed by an official recycling programme. This means that they often work without personal protective equipment. Consequently, they are vulnerable to the health risks of touching and breathing in these materials.

Industrial waste is another big environmental issue. The country has millions of tonnes of coal waste. In the past, the spontaneous combustion of coal heaps has led to dangerous levels of air pollution .

One first step: Move away from fossil fuels

Rabih Shasha

One change that could help with these environmental issues is to move away from fossil fuels. As outlined above, coal is a major contributor to South Africa’s problems with air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and waste. At COP26 in November 2021, South Africa joined other countries in signing the Political Declaration on the Just Energy Transition in South Africa . This notes an intention to “ decommission and repurpose or repower coal-fired power stations ” and invest in new technology, such as renewable energy.

The government’s 2019 Integrated Resource Plan now looks outdated in its reluctance to accept the need for a total phase-out of coal. It also places too much emphasis on natural gas ; a risky strategy. Gas may burn more cleanly than coal, but it is still a fossil fuel that generates greenhouse gas emissions . It also has the same problems as other fossil fuels: price volatility, supply issues and environmental risks.

South Africa must move away from all fossil fuels. This will help with energy security and  create high-quality new jobs . This means a more resilient economy. It is time for a new energy policy to allow South Africa to reach its true potential.

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Water Scarcity in Africa: Causes, Effects, and Solutions

The problem of water scarcity has cast a shadow over the wellbeing of humans. According to estimates, in 2016, nearly 4 billion people – equivalent to two-thirds of the global population – experience severe water scarcity for a prolonged period of time. If the situation doesn’t improve, 700 million people worldwide could be displaced by intense water scarcity by 2030. Africa, in particular, is facing severe water scarcity and the situation is worsening day by day. Resolute and substantial action is needed to address the issue.

Water Scarcity in Africa: An Overview

Water scarcity is the condition where the demand for water exceeds supply and where available water resources are approaching or have exceeded sustainable limits. 

The problem of water scarcity in Africa is not only a pressing one but it is also getting worse day by day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) , water scarcity affects 1 in 3 people in the African Region and the situation is deteriorating because of factors such as population growth and urbanisation but also climate change.

Water scarcity can be classified into two types: physical and economic. Physical water scarcity occurs when water resources are overexploited for different uses and no longer meet the needs of the population. In this case, there is not enough water available in physical terms. Economic water scarcity, on the other hand, is linked to poor governance, poor infrastructure, and limited investments. The latter type of water scarcity can exist even in countries or areas where water resources and infrastructure are adequate. 

As reported by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa in 2011, arid regions of the continent – mainly located in North Africa – experience frequent physical water scarcity, while Sub-Saharan Africa undergoes mainly economic water scarcity. Indeed, the latter region has a decent levels of physical water , mainly thanks to the abundant, though highly seasonal and unevenly distributed supply of rainwater. This region’s access to water, however, is constrained due to poor infrastructure, resulting in mainly economic rather than physical water scarcity.

Figure 1: Map of physical and economic water scarcity at basin level in 2007 across the African continent.

You might also like: Countries With Water Scarcity Right Now

In a 2022 study conducted on behalf of the United Nations University Institute for Water Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), researchers employed indicators to quantify water security in all of Africa’s countries. They found that only 13 out of 54 countries reached a modest level of water security in recent years, with Egypt, Botswana, Gabon, Mauritius and Tunisia representing the better-off countries in Africa in terms of water security. 

19 countries – which are home to half a billion people – are deemed to have levels of water security below the threshold of 45 on a scale of 1 to 100. On the other hand, Somalia, Chad, and Niger are the continent’s least water-secure countries.

Egypt performs the best regarding access to drinking water while the Central African Republic performs the worst. The latter, however, has the highest per capita water availability while half of North African countries are characterised by absolute water scarcity. This again shows that Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Africa face economic water scarcity more than physical water scarcity. 

Causes of Water Scarcity in Africa

Human activities, which result in overexploitation and global warming, are the main culprit for the water scarcity in Africa. Overexploitation is the main contributor to physical water scarcity. A 2018 report published by the Institute for Security Studies stated that more than 60% of South Africa’s rivers are being overexploited and only one-third of the country’s main rivers are in good condition. Lake Chad – once deemed Africa’s largest freshwater body and important freshwater reservoir – is shrinking because of overexploitation of its water. According to a 2019 report , for this reason alone, the water body of the lake has diminished by 90% since the 1960s, with the surface area of the lake decreasing from 26,000 square kilometres in 1963 to less than 1,500 square kilometres in 2018. 

Figure 2: The size of Lake Chad shows a massive shrinking between 1972 and 2007.

The underlying cause for overexploitation can be further broken down to the increase in water demand, driven by the rise in population growth and rate of urbanisation. 

Population in Sub-Saharan Africa is growing at a rate of 2.7% a year in 2020, more than twice that of South Asia (1.2%) and Latin America (0.9%). Meanwhile, the population of Nigeria – a country in West Africa – is forecasted to double by 2050. As for the rate of urbanisation, according to the United Nations , 21 out of the 30 fastest-growing cities in the world in 2018 are deemed to be in Africa. Cities such as Bamako in Mali and Yaounde in Cameroon have experience explosive growth. 

The booming population will inevitably lead to more food demand, a faster rate of urbanisation and an rise in industrial activities, all of which require abundant water supply.

Climate change and global warming – mainly caused by an increase in human and commercial activities – equally contribute to water scarcity in Africa. As a report by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa found, a 1C rise in global temperatures would result in a reduction of runoff   – excess rainwater that flows across the land’s surface – by up to 10%. Another study stated that the declining trends of rainfall caused by global warming will continue in North Africa, limiting groundwater recharge and exacerbating groundwater depletion. Although in areas closer to the equator, a soar in precipitation will likely occur as a result of global warming, the increased potential evapotranspiration   – the combined loss of water through the plant’s process of transpiration and evaporation of water from the earth’s surface – and drought risks in the majority of the continent still outweigh the increased rainfall in these areas. 

Consequences of Water Scarcity in Africa

Water scarcity is expected to affect the economic condition, the health of citizens as well as ecosystems in Africa. 

In economic terms, the agriculture sector is likely to be hampered under severe water scarcity. Agriculture is one of the most pivotal economic sectors for Africa, employing the majority of the population. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone, it accounts for nearly 14% of the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP). As the sector that relies on water the most, agriculture is already heavily impacted by water scarcity and the situation is expected to further deteriorate, leading to other issues such as food shortages and, in the worst cases, famine.

You might also like: Why We Should Care About Food Security

Not surprisingly, water shortage is an immense threat to human’s health. In times of water scarcity, people are often forced to get their water supply from contaminated ponds and streams. When ingested, polluted water results in widespread diarrhoeal diseases including cholera, typhoid fever, salmonellosis, other gastrointestinal viruses, and dysentery. Quality of healthcare services in many African countries is low, with only 48% African people having access to healthcare. The poor system has made diarrhoeal diseases life-threatening and in many cases even fatal. 

A study published in 2021 found that severe diarrheal disease accounts for about 600,000 deaths each year in sub-Saharan Africa, with the majority being children and elderly. Diarrheal disease is the third-leading cause of disease and death among African children under the age of five, a situation that public health authorities blame on poor quality of water and sanitation. 

Lastly, water shortages jeopardise ecosystems and contribute to a loss in biodiversity. Africa is home to some of the most unique freshwater ecosystems in the world. Lake Turkana is the world’s largest desert lake, while Lake Malawi hosts the richest freshwater fish fauna in the world, home to a staggering 14% of the world’s freshwater fish species. If not tackled, water scarcity will disrupt and likely terminate freshwater and marine ecosystems in the continent. 

You might also like: 10 of the Most Endangered Species in Africa

Solutions to Water Scarcity in Africa

Remedies for water scarcity are observed on a local, national, and international scale. 

Local communities are taking adaptation action. Many opt for drought-tolerant crops instead of crops that require large amounts of water, a strategy to mitigate both water scarcity and food insecurity. Conservation or regenerative agriculture is also introduced to help infiltration and soil moisture retention through mulching and no-tillage approaches. Countries such as Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Ethiopia have all adopted such techniques in recent years.

Several governments are also taking steps to tackle water scarcity across the continent. For example, the government of Namibia financed the construction of a urban wastewater management in the capital Windhoek, significantly improving the management of water resources and thus lowering the risk of water scarcity. 

International organisations also lend a helping hand in times of water scarcity. In recent years, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) promoted several initiatives and implemented innovative financing model to alleviate this pressing issue. In regions in eastern and southern Africa, UNICEF is cooperating with the European Investment Bank (EIB), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and other international agencies and organisations to evaluate and implement bankable projects in a blended financing mode, particularly targeting the urban areas. For example , the European Union donated €19 million for the construction of water supply systems in the Eswatini’s cities of Siphofaneni, Somntongo, and Matsanjeni. Similarly, the DBSA contributed about €150 million to the construction of the Lomahasha Water Supply. Booster pumping stations as well as reinforced concrete reservoirs are also constructed with the support of international actors.

You might also like: One Woman’s Mission to Fight Water Scarcity in Africa

All in all, the water scarcity problem in Africa is likely to exacerbate under the ever-increasing water demand and rise in global temperatures. Tangible action from all parties is constantly required to tackle this massive problem. Individuals can equally play an important role in alleviating water scarcity in Africa by adopting a more environmental-friendly lifestyle and taking actions in their daily lives to mitigate the effect of climate change and they can develop mindful practises that help safe water, one of the most important resources for life on Earth.

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Hydropower damages river systems in Africa: How more solar and wind power can solve this problem

A cross the African continent, more than 300 new hydropower projects are planned to meet the growing demand for electricity . Some of these will require big dams, which can have major negative environmental impacts. Another looming problem with hydropower is that the water cycle is affected by climate change. Water availability will be reduced and become more variable in some locations in the next decades.

We are a team of environmental and energy systems researchers. Energy systems is the study of how energy can be produced to meet the demand of the different sectors of society. Environmental systems modeling is used to simulate the natural environment and evaluate the impacts of infrastructure on it.

We analyzed the likely development of energy systems in Africa from 2020 to 2050, looking at energy demand, the changing use of land and its impact on energy and how the warming climate will affect water availability.

The continent of Africa still uses 80% less electricity than the global average per capita. But given the projected population growth and increase in living standards , electricity demand in Africa will rise. This means new power generation infrastructure will be needed.

Our research found that wind and solar projects will be more cost effective than hydropower by 2030. This means that only 40% to 68% of the planned hydropower capacity in Africa will be economically attractive.

What also needs to be considered is that reducing the impact of droughts on energy systems requires overbuilding infrastructure. This means more energy infrastructure than needed on average is required to be reliable against extreme droughts. An overall increased annual investment in new power plants (of any type) of 1.8% to 4% will be needed across the continent.

This additional investment is needed when considering a worst-case scenario for hydropower generation. This scenario also includes the effects of climate change and the reduced cost of renewables on the power system expansion.

Hydropower no longer the solution

Hydropower is currently the main source of renewable electricity on the African continent with around 40GW of capacity installed . This generates around 150 TWh of electricity in a year, 15% of the total electricity consumption in the continent. This is enough to satisfy the annual power consumption of two countries of the size of Morocco and Algeria with a total population of 82.5 million people, for example. It has been considered a cheap source of electricity with a low carbon footprint. But this is no longer strictly true.

Hydropower presents the following problems.

Renewable power sources such as solar and wind power are becoming increasingly cost-competitive . These can reduce hydropower reliance, diversify countries' energy portfolios, and reduce the environmental impact of building more hydropower dams.

African river basins support land and freshwater ecosystems that are global biodiversity hotspots. Of the 543 major rivers in the world—those that are longer than 500km and which flow in an uninterrupted way to the sea—156 (29%) are located in Africa. Dams disturb this by breaking up the flow of rivers .

In Africa, 26% of rivers have been fragmented or broken up—much lower than the global average of 43% . This means that African rivers are valuable hubs of connected river habitats. If all the planned African hydropower projects were built, we estimate that average river fragmentation could rise to 42%, potentially leading to large biodiversity loss.

For example, researchers found that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam would result in the displacement of 122,000 people, release seven million tons of carbon dioxide, and alter the Blue Nile's water temperature, making it unsuitable for many of the plants and animals living there.

Whenever a new dam is built, water submerges land. The soil and other matter found on the land (biomass) is digested under the water and this process releases into the atmosphere carbon dioxide and methane, a potent greenhouse gas. These emissions are released from the dams for years after they are first built.

Hydropower emissions would increase by almost 25 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year at least for a few decades, substantially hindering progress towards net zero emissions. This would be equivalent to what is emitted per person over 25 million trans-Atlantic round-trip flights.

Hydropower is vulnerable to climate change: as droughts kick in and water runs out, hydropower won't be as available or as cost effective. Looking at the whole energy system, our previous research has found that the availability of hydro, combined with solar and wind power decreasing in cost, means that about 32% to 60% of the proposed hydropower projects are no longer economically competitive . Building new solar and wind renewable systems comes with an overall lower energy system cost than building all proposed hydropower projects.

Furthermore, our new study shows it's possible to reduce the impacts of the hydropower projects that are cost-competitive by deploying more renewables. Additional river fragmentation and hydropower emissions can be reduced by at least 50% with a minimal increase in electricity prices (at most +1.4%).

Why it matters

Currently, energy systems are mostly planned based on engineering and economic considerations. But it is more cost-effective overall if governments plan new energy systems taking into account the available technology, its cost, and costs that would be incurred by projects that damage the environment and communities (such as big dams).

We argue that the scope of energy system planning must be expanded so that it takes into account all these factors. Indeed, including social and environmental objectives is key to making sure that the energy transition is clean and just.

This research finding is very important because hydropower plants continue to be planned in many large river basins, based on the mistaken belief that they are the cheapest form of renewable energy.

For the best results in Africa, there will need to be cooperation between different countries. This could help to overcome the regionally unequal distribution of investment costs and potential energy deficits between the different countries.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article .

Provided by The Conversation

South Africa: Environmental Activists Win Against Shell in Appeal Court

Shell still has one more shot at seismic exploration authorisation

• The Supreme Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal by Shell, Impact Africa and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, to overturn a High Court ruling that halted an seismic survey off the Wild Coast.
• Dismissing the application with costs, the court said community participation had been "illusory".
• However, the court has left the door open for Impact Africa and Shell to proceed with their third and final attempt for a renewal of the 2014 exploration rights.
• But proper and meaningful consultation must be done with local communities who say the seismic survey will impact their livelihoods.

The Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) has dismissed, with costs, an appeal by Shell, Impact Africa, and the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), which sought to overturn a High Court ruling that had halted an oceanic seismic survey off the Wild Coast.

The ruling entrenches the legal rights of communities to proper consultation under various laws in South Africa.

However, the court suspended the orders of the Makhanda High Court which had set aside Shell's exploration right of 2014, and DMRE's decision to renew the right in 2017 and 2021, pending the outcome of a further application by Shell submitted in July 2023.

This now leaves the door open again for Shell to seek permission to proceed with its exploration. But in light of the findings by the Makhanda High Court and the SCA, it will have to be done with proper consultation with the affected communities, taking into account community rights and environmental harm.

The Amadiba, Cwebe, Hobeni, Port St Johns and Kei Mouth communities, as well as Sustaining the Wild Coast, Natural Justice and Greenpeace Africa, secured a victory in the Makhanda High Court in September 2022 when three judges of that court ruled that the authorisation of the exploration right was unlawful.

The DMRE and Shell appealed against that decision in the SCA, arguing that the the public participation process and the Environmental Management Programme, both concluded before the 2014 right was granted, were sufficient for the Minister to make a decision on the subsequent renewals.

They also argued that certain factors such as climate change and heritage rights need not have been considered in making this decision.

A cross-appeal was brought by environmental activists, who argued that Shell must get environmental authorisation and undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment before being granted a renewal, as the law had changed.

Read the SCA judgment here

In Monday's unanimous ruling, Judge Nathan Ponnan said the right to procedurally fair administrative action was entrenched in the Bill of Rights.

"When administrative action materially adversely affects the rights of any person, their right to procedural fairness is triggered. It can hardly be in dispute that Impact was required to meaningfully consult with the communities and individuals that would be affected by the seismic blasting."

He said the Promotion of Administration of Justice Act set out the requirement for procedural fairness. This included that affected persons must be given adequate notice of the action and must be given a reasonable opportunity to make representations.

The Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act also imposed obligations to consult with any affected party.

The general principles under that act were that interested and affected persons had to be informed in sufficient detail of the proposed mining activities in order for them to make an informed decision over what representation to make.

There also had to be meaningful consultation.

The judge said the adequacy of the consultation process had been subjected to wide-ranging criticism: that the language used was technical and inaccessible and that geographical location was vague and overbroad.

"However, by far the most trenchant criticism - one from which there appears to be no escape for the appellants (the ministry and Shell/Impact) is that the notices that were published in four newspapers were inaccessible to many members of the communities," said Judge Ponnan.

"Three of the newspapers were in English and one in Afrikaans. Few people in the respondent communities read English and virtually no-one speaks Afrikaans. The majority speak isiXhosa or isiMpondo.

"If Impact wanted to meaningfully engage with them, it should have prepared notices in their language," he said, noting however, that most of the communities did not read newspapers and relied on radio for news.

"The process, which was more illusory than real, was thus manifestly inadequate," Judge Ponnnan said.

The upshot of this was that when the exploration application was considered by the department, a number of relevant factors were not considered.

These included the detrimental impact the survey might have on spiritual and cultural practices, the livelihoods of communities, in so much as the sea is a primary and in many cases only source of nutrition and income for them, and the requirements of the National Environmental Management Integrated Coastal Management Act, which created specific measures for the protection of the coastal zone.

Judge Ponnan said the decision was reviewable but the unlawfulness had to be dealt with in line with the Constitution.

The High Court had "gone so far as to hold that authorising new oil and gas exploration ... was not consistent with South Africa complying with its international climate change commitments".

"On any reckoning, such a far-reaching finding, which has a sterilising effect and for which there can be no warrant, cannot be endorsed."

He said courts had to be pragmatic in crafting just and equitable remedies.

The High Court had erred by not weighing up relevant factors.

These included that there had been an almost eight-year delay between the granting of the exploration right and the review application, and that there had been significant financial expenditure in the region of R1.1-billion.

Two renewals had been granted and there was only one more opportunity to renew the right, which had been submitted in July 2023. The right remained in force until the third renewal application had been granted or refused.

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"It would thus be entirely within the power of this court to direct that as part and parcel of a proper consideration of the third renewal application, a further public participation process be conducted to cure the identified defects in the process already undertaken," Judge Ponnan said.

He said the issues and the parties involved were now well established in the court proceedings.

He dismissed the appeal, with costs, but suspended the High Court's previous orders that set aside the granting of the right and the renewal applications, pending the outcome of the third renewal application.

"Shell respects the court's decision to dismiss the appeal," said its spokesperson Pam Ntaka. "However, we welcome the court's direction that the exploration right remains valid, subject to further public consultation and the renewal application."

"We are examining the ruling in detail and considering our next steps".

The Legal Resources Centre's Wilmien Wicomb said the judgment had reaffirmed the importance of recognising and respecting the rights of local and directly affected communities. However, it was disappointing that the court had given Shell a further chance to renew the exploration right.

"It is not clear how the renewal of a permit, ten years after it was first (unlawfully) granted, can possibly cure the original sin," she said.

Sinegugu Zukulu, of Sustaining the Wild Coast, said the ruling disregarded the rights of current and future generations to a climate crisis-free life.

Read the original article on GroundUp .

Supreme Court of Appeal Dismisses Shell's Appeal but Extends Shell a Lifeline

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