South Africa’s beautiful beaches are slowly being gobbled up by rising sea levels. And while you and your kids still enjoy this coastline, your grandchildren may never be privileged enough to see Durban’s Golden Mile.
Fortunately, local authorities are increasingly aware that they will have to plan ahead if they want to mitigate the negative effects of climate change on South Africa’s environment.
Durban is one of the first cities to take concrete steps. A report released in June this year about how climate change is affecting Durban predicts that the sea level will rise by an average of 4,5cm every 10 years, suggesting that by 2100 the sea in Durban will have risen by almost half a metre.
Rob Hounsome, one of the authors of the report, said at its launch that, given the anticipated impact of climate change on the city, the municipality and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research conducted research to understand how climate change would affect the area.
“Damage can be expected from extreme events such as flooding, which may cause the high-tide level to increase, thus resulting in potential impacts on infrastructure … and coastal erosion … ultimately placing a significant portion of the population at risk,” he said.
The report says uShaka Marine World could be inundated or submerged in the event of a storm surge or flood. “I know some South African cities, such as Durban, have already started planning for their climate change and have issued studies on how best they can adapt to these changes,” said Joanne Yawitch, deputy director general of environmental quality and protection at the department of environmental affairs and tourism.
“Durban might, in future, be very thoughtful about their developments along the coastline and how the infrastructure might be impacted in future,” she added.
Durban is not the only coastal area looking ahead. A climate change assessment report for the Western Cape, tabled before the environmental department in July, warned that the greater Cape Town metropole, the southern Cape, Port Elizabeth and the Natal South Coast might also be vulnerable to the increase in sea levels.
In the past few months houses along the Garden Route have suffered severe structural damage because of storms. The report warns that the worst is yet to come for the Western Cape. “The most significant impacts of sea-level rise are expected where problems are already being experienced,” says the report. “However, the impacts of this rise in sea level may only become apparent roughly 30 years from now.”
The report says that even though buildings and structures will easily last for that length of time, it would be sensible to restrict development close to sandy beaches. It recommends that more stringent “set-back lines” for developments be assessed urgently.
The report also predicts that some areas along the Garden Route, such as Plettenberg Bay, could be affected, although the damage is not expected to be severe. In the Table Bay area, Koeberg Nuclear Power Station seaÂwater intakes could potentially increase. Properties built too close to the high-water line will be most at risk.
At last month’s climate change conference in Nairobi, the world’s leading climate change experts predicted that sea levels would rise between 15cm and 95cm if greenhouse gases were not drastically reduced.
Scientists also fear that climate change will have a devastating effect on Africa’s fresh water resources and coastlines. They said a third of Africa’s infrastructure was under threat from global warming.
Cities such as Cape Town, Maputo and Lagos will be affected by this rise in sea levels, warned Sue Taylor of the South African branch of the Worldwide Fund for Nature at the conference.