11 Counting Down to Day Zero: Exploring Community-Based Water Management …
195
the other five district municipalities, namely Cape Winelands District Municipality,
Central Karoo District Municipality, Garden Route District Municipality, Overberg
District Municipality, and West Coast District Municipality together with all the 24
local municipalities, can only be well fully explored and understood within the proper
sub-national, national, regional, and global contexts.
It is a fact that South Africa faces increasingly high levels of natural disaster
risks, which have been intensifying in recent years largely as a result of climate
change and dynamics of global weather systems, hence the frequency of extreme
hydrometeorological hazards. As a result, droughts, veld and urban fires, floods,
tropical storms, and tropical cyclones have all been common across different parts
of South Africa and the wider region. In March and April 2019 alone, the country
has been affected by the effects of Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth mostly in
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) coastal areas, while Gauteng and Cape Town experienced
severe floods in January 2019.
Faced with such exposure to frequent and recurrent weather hazards, climaterelated disasters, and other natural disaster risks, which aggravate the vulnerability
of citizens, the need for a regular review of comprehensive disaster preparedness,
disaster risk management, and disaster risk reduction plans is essential, while the
alignment of such interventions with global disaster risk reduction framework is
equally indispensable as it is obligatory. At a local level, South Africa’s Municipal
Systems Act 32 of 2000 obliges every municipality to have a Disaster Management
Plan or a disaster management strategic action as part of its Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and most of the municipalities have these in place. At the national
level, the White Paper on Disaster Management of 1999 provides policy, the legislative and institutional framework for disaster risk management, while the Disaster
Management Act of 2002, supported by the National Disaster Management Framework (NDMF) gazetted in April 2005 and later by the National Disaster Management
Guidelines of May 2008, assists to provide an integrated, uniform, and coordinated
approach to disaster prevention, disaster preparedness, disaster management, disaster
mitigation, disaster risk reduction, and post-disaster recovery and rehabilitation.
Thus the legislation provides for the establishment of Disaster Management Centers
(DMCs) and Disaster Risk Management Advisory Forums (DRMAFs) at national,
provincial, and local government levels, with the Inter-Governmental Relations
Framework Act of 2005 providing the legal basis for cooperation and collaboration
between and among the three spheres of government in disaster management.
The South African policy and legal framework disaster management and disaster
risk reduction is aligned to the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Regional Disaster Preparedness and Response Mechanism, the SADC Regional
Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Programme, the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, and the Africa Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk
Reduction (ARSDRR). However, with climate-related disasters now by far the most
frequent natural disasters globally, it is imperative to view disaster management
efforts within the framework of climate change policy frameworks, including the
Western Cape Drought of 2017/2018.
195
the other five district municipalities, namely Cape Winelands District Municipality,
Central Karoo District Municipality, Garden Route District Municipality, Overberg
District Municipality, and West Coast District Municipality together with all the 24
local municipalities, can only be well fully explored and understood within the proper
sub-national, national, regional, and global contexts.
It is a fact that South Africa faces increasingly high levels of natural disaster
risks, which have been intensifying in recent years largely as a result of climate
change and dynamics of global weather systems, hence the frequency of extreme
hydrometeorological hazards. As a result, droughts, veld and urban fires, floods,
tropical storms, and tropical cyclones have all been common across different parts
of South Africa and the wider region. In March and April 2019 alone, the country
has been affected by the effects of Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth mostly in
KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) coastal areas, while Gauteng and Cape Town experienced
severe floods in January 2019.
Faced with such exposure to frequent and recurrent weather hazards, climaterelated disasters, and other natural disaster risks, which aggravate the vulnerability
of citizens, the need for a regular review of comprehensive disaster preparedness,
disaster risk management, and disaster risk reduction plans is essential, while the
alignment of such interventions with global disaster risk reduction framework is
equally indispensable as it is obligatory. At a local level, South Africa’s Municipal
Systems Act 32 of 2000 obliges every municipality to have a Disaster Management
Plan or a disaster management strategic action as part of its Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and most of the municipalities have these in place. At the national
level, the White Paper on Disaster Management of 1999 provides policy, the legislative and institutional framework for disaster risk management, while the Disaster
Management Act of 2002, supported by the National Disaster Management Framework (NDMF) gazetted in April 2005 and later by the National Disaster Management
Guidelines of May 2008, assists to provide an integrated, uniform, and coordinated
approach to disaster prevention, disaster preparedness, disaster management, disaster
mitigation, disaster risk reduction, and post-disaster recovery and rehabilitation.
Thus the legislation provides for the establishment of Disaster Management Centers
(DMCs) and Disaster Risk Management Advisory Forums (DRMAFs) at national,
provincial, and local government levels, with the Inter-Governmental Relations
Framework Act of 2005 providing the legal basis for cooperation and collaboration
between and among the three spheres of government in disaster management.
The South African policy and legal framework disaster management and disaster
risk reduction is aligned to the Southern African Development Community (SADC)
Regional Disaster Preparedness and Response Mechanism, the SADC Regional
Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Programme, the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan, and the Africa Regional Strategy for Disaster Risk
Reduction (ARSDRR). However, with climate-related disasters now by far the most
frequent natural disasters globally, it is imperative to view disaster management
efforts within the framework of climate change policy frameworks, including the
Western Cape Drought of 2017/2018.