The Department of Environment in the North West is optimistic that it will come up with a strategy that will prepare the province for climate change.
The department is holding a two-day provincial climate-change strategy workshop with different stakeholders in Mahikeng. Tlhapi said they will ensure the province has a plan that’ll prepare it for any form of climate change.
“We are here to engage with different stakeholders, there are a lot of experts that are going to present and tell us how best can we even know when we have rain, when there will be a heat wave, and so on.
“So they are here and they understand these things. We also have the North West University students that are also studying the area of climate,” Tlhapi said.
The acting head of the department, Lebo Diale believes the strategy will take into consideration the nature of the landscape in the province.
“The strategy and action plan is going to take into account the vulnerabilities of the report that we have. We have already conducted a vulnerability report in the province, just to check how climate change is likely to affect us as a province given the different types of businesses and activities that we have, and the nature of the landscape in the province.
“So we are hoping that the plan that we are going to come up with is going to respond to everything that has to do with the survival of humanity. The economy must still grow and we must still continue to create jobs.
“While we are responding to the impacts of climate change. We are going to make sure that we don’t only link to one side as we respond. We will look into plans to mitigate and there will also be plans that are geared to ensure that we adapt,” said Diale.
North West University lecturer, Dr Hennon Havenga, said the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warned that the North West will experience severe droughts.
“The latest IPCC report says that Western Southern Africa and Eastern Southern Africa, which includes the North West Province, is going to experience more severe frequent droughts.
“And we are also going to see more severe weather events, for instance, more severe precipitation and what is interesting about that is that we as scientists have to understand that the NorthWest receives most of its rainfall as thunderstorms.
“So what these predictions are saying in terms of the actual physical science is that, although droughts are going to become more common in the province when it rains we can expect more severe rain in the form of more severe thunderstorms, which can be particularly harmful to the agricultural sector,” Havenga said.
The draft National Bill, 2021, highlighted that the climate change response implementation plan must be informed by the climate change needs and response assessment.
