Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The world's climate is changing and the impacts are being
Speaker 2: felt worldwide.
Speaker 3: Record setting temperatures topping one hundred and four degrees, fueling
Speaker 3: raging fires across London. A record amount of rain fell
Speaker 3: on Manila on Saturday.
Speaker 4: The partly submerged city of jung Jao It's subway system
Speaker 4: now an underground river. This is a fire that erupted
Speaker 4: during the morning rush hour along the busiest interstate there in.
Speaker 3: The New York City subway system shut down overnight.
Speaker 2: But while severe weather events in wealthier nations around the
Speaker 2: world gets the majority of headlines, there are parts of
Speaker 2: the African continent where the effects can be worse than
Speaker 2: even their neighbors without getting global attention.
Speaker 1: Around informal settlements, there is no electricity there, sanitation, it's
Speaker 1: not that good that times leaves no water.
Speaker 4: About ten percent of the population, which is oftentimes white,
Speaker 4: owning the range of eighty percent of the country's wealth.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Next Africa podcast, we'll look
Speaker 2: at the environmental inequality in South Africa and what's being
Speaker 2: done to help communities facing up to the reality of
Speaker 2: climate change. I'm Jennifer's Abasaga and this is the Next
Speaker 2: Africa podcast, bringing you one story each week from the continent,
Speaker 2: driving the future of global growth with the context only
Speaker 2: Bloomberg can provide. And Tondo Taquana is a Bloomberg reporter
Speaker 2: based in Johannesburg and she's been reporting on this story
Speaker 2: for quite some time. She's joining us now this week
Speaker 2: for the podcast and Tondo, thanks so much for being
Speaker 2: with us.
Speaker 3: So let's just start here.
Speaker 2: What has been the impact of climate change on South Africa?
Speaker 3: What kind of weather events are we seeing and have
Speaker 3: been increased here over the past few years.
Speaker 1: We've seen a lot of floods, the floods of April
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one, if I'm not mistaken, in a case
Speaker 1: at n that basically just damaged infrastructure, left a lot
Speaker 1: of people homeless. We also saw another big one in
Speaker 1: Cape Town earlier this year, same situation there.
Speaker 3: But we're also.
Speaker 1: Seeing very extreme heat events causing a lot of heat
Speaker 1: stress on human bodies.
Speaker 4: So that's just some of.
Speaker 1: The unusual way the patterns that we are seeing that
Speaker 1: are having a real impact on health, on just livability
Speaker 1: in some areas. And what we have heard also is
Speaker 1: that there's really an impact on economic activity as well.
Speaker 1: A lot of people when they suffer from these consequences
Speaker 1: of climate change, they are unable to work to their
Speaker 1: optimum levels because there's bodily stress involved. And if you
Speaker 1: look at sexes such as the agricultural sectors. This year
Speaker 1: we did have a very hot February with high temperature
Speaker 1: records broken in some parts of the country and that
Speaker 1: was causing some damage to crops. So those are some
Speaker 1: of the economic losses that we see in Kanda.
Speaker 2: There's been a report from the World Bank about how
Speaker 2: the heat isn't experienced equally in South Africa.
Speaker 3: Dig into that a bit more for us if you can.
Speaker 4: So the World Bank reports it included.
Speaker 1: A heat mapping campaign and that saw fifty eight local
Speaker 1: community members travel different routes from where they live to
Speaker 1: different parts of the city. They it fits heat sensors
Speaker 1: onto vehicles and they'd be tracking eight temperatures along the way.
Speaker 1: And what that report has found is that in urban
Speaker 1: censers like your Johannesburg twenty, not necessarily informal settlements or townships,
Speaker 1: the temperature difference between those areas and neighboring countryside neighborhoods is.
Speaker 4: Between three to four degrees.
Speaker 1: Celsius, but when you come to townships, the differential is
Speaker 1: basically doubled, so they experience temperatures as high as sixty
Speaker 1: six degrees celsius. And they've also found that inside a
Speaker 1: tinshak the temperature is also eight degrees higher than in
Speaker 1: homes that are situated in wealthier neighborhoods. And in terms
Speaker 1: of how many hot nights these neighborhoods could be facing,
Speaker 1: the disparacies quite large as well. In urban centers, where
Speaker 1: you've got urban homes that are properly insulated, the building
Speaker 1: quality is great. There are trees all around, so they
Speaker 1: bar me these like greeze constantly. Those neighborhoods would experience
Speaker 1: forty uncomfortably hot nights by twenty fifty, and in comparison,
Speaker 1: homes in poorer neighborhoods would experience as much as one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty hot nights.
Speaker 2: And I think we should point out the fact that homes,
Speaker 2: I mean you mentioned the ten homes. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of differences depending on what types of homes people are
Speaker 2: living with in South Africa, which is not necessarily common.
Speaker 2: In a lot of the developed world, so these extreme
Speaker 2: weather events can have an extreme impact on what is
Speaker 2: happening and how they're feeling inside the home.
Speaker 4: Right, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1: If you go into an informal settlement, you'll find that
Speaker 1: most of the homes are built out of corrugated iron
Speaker 1: sheets and these are mostly makeshift homes, so there isn't
Speaker 1: like proper engineering or proper construction that is applied. And
Speaker 1: it's one of the issues that some of the city
Speaker 1: planners were raising in terms of how to regulate indoor temperatures.
Speaker 1: Because when you decide to build a structure, you take
Speaker 1: you're building plants through the municipality. The indoor temperature regulations
Speaker 1: are sort of built into the planning process, whereas in
Speaker 1: informal settlements, which are typically illegally set up, there isn't
Speaker 1: any sort of regulation and they are tightly packed together.
Speaker 1: It's crowded, it's just alleyways, the streets are very narrow,
Speaker 1: and the spacing issue means that they can't actually plant
Speaker 1: a lot of tree, which is a big issue because
Speaker 1: it's very expensive sometimes to actually try and build in
Speaker 1: your own mitigation risks in your home or your neighborhood.
Speaker 4: If you plant trees.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's an inexpensive way of how to deal
Speaker 1: with these issues. But in informal settlements, those are poor
Speaker 1: communities that can't afford air conditioners and other cooling equipment.
Speaker 2: And for this reporting in Tondo, you went inside a
Speaker 2: lot of these townships. I mean you went to go
Speaker 2: visit them and talk to people. What did they tell
Speaker 2: you about this? I'm sure for many of them this
Speaker 2: is just what they've always experienced. But I wonder how
Speaker 2: they've seen changes happen, how, yeah, these extreme events are
Speaker 2: affecting them on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1: We actually visited a lady called Nolatando Geja. She lives
Speaker 1: in an informal settlement just in Twine, which is north
Speaker 1: of Johannesburg.
Speaker 4: Her home is a two roomed wall.
Speaker 1: Structure, but the roof is corrugated, is a corrugated iron sheets.
Speaker 4: It's very tiny. It's very tiny.
Speaker 1: If I had to estimate, probably like the room we
Speaker 1: were in, which is her kitchen, was probably like ten
Speaker 1: feet at most. And what she said to me was
Speaker 1: that it's just frustrating to be in such a small space.
Speaker 1: She doesn't have many options for cooling, and at night
Speaker 1: it gets exacerbated. I remember she said it actually does
Speaker 1: have an emotional toll on her. She lives with three
Speaker 1: kids in that small structure, and she was saying, I
Speaker 1: just find myself.
Speaker 4: Screaming at these kids because it's just so hot. I'm frustrated.
Speaker 4: It's like stressing me.
Speaker 1: And I think what also compounds this issue in those
Speaker 1: particular areas is the lack of basic services. Unsustainable electricity supply,
Speaker 1: unsustainable water supply. I mean, in situations like that, you
Speaker 1: need water to alleviate some of the stresses that come
Speaker 1: with the heat that is just engulfing you.
Speaker 4: Basically, the problem.
Speaker 1: Is also that there's like a rapid urbanization that's happening,
Speaker 1: so more and more people are coming into these informal
Speaker 1: settlements and they actually end up cutting them down, cutting the.
Speaker 4: Trees down to make space for more checks.
Speaker 3: Basically, stick with us in Tondo.
Speaker 2: When we come back, we'll talk about what if anything,
Speaker 2: is being done to help people like know Lutando you
Speaker 2: were just describing there, So we'll be right back. Welcome
Speaker 2: back today on the podcast, we're talking about the impact
Speaker 2: of climate change on disadvantaged communities in South Africa. Our
Speaker 2: reporter in Tondo Taquanta is still with us and Tondo.
Speaker 4: What is the South.
Speaker 3: African government saying about this?
Speaker 2: Do they accept there's a problem and we should caveat
Speaker 2: this by saying there's historical ties to these settlements in
Speaker 2: these townships.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the government does recognize that this is a problem.
Speaker 1: In fact, part of the reasoning on the retional behind
Speaker 1: this study was to come up with strategies that could
Speaker 1: be given to municipalities to adopt in their own plans
Speaker 1: for how they could proof cities and townships and informal settlements.
Speaker 4: Against the risks of climate change.
Speaker 1: This particular study, they worked with the National Treasury, which
Speaker 1: through fiscal transfers, is helping municipalities do this. In fact,
Speaker 1: there's work that the Human Settlement's Department is doing. That's
Speaker 1: the department responsible for housing and building homes for people.
Speaker 4: There's a specific.
Speaker 1: Informal settlement upgrading grants that's aimed at upgrading informal settlements
Speaker 1: of South Africa so that people have housing, proper housing.
Speaker 1: So basically they take them out of these informal structures
Speaker 1: and build homes for them, and the National Treasury is
Speaker 1: actually advocating for them to think about climate risk strategies
Speaker 1: or climate resilience strategies so that they can actually apply
Speaker 1: them in building these houses. So there is work that
Speaker 1: is being done, and there are also heat action plan
Speaker 1: and that cities are expected to adopt. In fact, one
Speaker 1: was approved in the city of Cape Town And they
Speaker 1: are doing work such as coming up with.
Speaker 4: Alert systems for when they expect there.
Speaker 1: To be like an extreme heat wave and basically educating
Speaker 1: dwellers of these places for how to deal with the
Speaker 1: risks of climate change. And they're also encouraging them to
Speaker 1: go on these huge planting drives so that they can
Speaker 1: increase the vegetation around them.
Speaker 2: And when it comes to the infrastructure, do we know
Speaker 2: exactly what it is that needs to be implemented into
Speaker 2: these townships.
Speaker 1: There are some ideas that have been thrown around. One
Speaker 1: obvious one is painting the rules of these structures with
Speaker 1: white paints so as to increase the amount of heat
Speaker 1: that can be trapped. In terms of the infrastructure, that
Speaker 1: is some of what is being suggested more ventilation as
Speaker 1: well as some of it.
Speaker 2: And what's the likelihood that will actually see some change,
Speaker 2: Because I mean, this is a pretty large issue that
Speaker 2: needs to be handled and tackle.
Speaker 1: It's very difficult because even if you think about like
Speaker 1: you mentioned earlier.
Speaker 4: That this is a legacy issue.
Speaker 1: South Africa has been trying to sort out, you know,
Speaker 1: its housing crisis for thirty years, and they have not
Speaker 1: been able to break this inequality when it comes to
Speaker 1: its special divide that sees black people basically left to
Speaker 1: the margins of the city, which is where people feel
Speaker 1: the most adverse effect of climate change. I'd be less
Speaker 1: hopeful that this can be done very quickly because of
Speaker 1: the fact that historically, even just the housing crisis has
Speaker 1: been very difficult to sort out. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I think one can be encouraged that they are actually
Speaker 1: thinking about how the impacts of climate change affect people,
Speaker 1: and that they are making a more concerted effort to
Speaker 1: make sure that there's budgeting for it and to make
Speaker 1: sure that municipalities following some of these strategies that they
Speaker 1: are suggesting.
Speaker 2: And we hear from a number of climate strategists saying
Speaker 2: that of course this stream weather it's going to continue
Speaker 2: if the right mitigation measures aren't put in place. What's
Speaker 2: the outlook then for these communities, And I wonder when
Speaker 2: you speak to them, how do they feel about the
Speaker 2: issue now and maybe where it's headed towards if something's
Speaker 2: not done.
Speaker 1: To be honest, while it is a worry, they worry
Speaker 1: it more about the lack of basic services. I feel
Speaker 1: like for them that is a far reach. The first
Speaker 1: thing that they want to see is running water in
Speaker 1: the community that I went too.
Speaker 4: Specifically, when you.
Speaker 1: Walk into the streets, you literally see open sewer trickling
Speaker 1: down the streets and the stench is quite strong. And
Speaker 1: what a Nolusando kept on saying, or keeps on emphasizing,
Speaker 1: was the fact that it just stinks and it's worse
Speaker 1: when it becomes hotter and hotter, and sorting that issue
Speaker 1: out first would be the price for them. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there's still a bit far from actually thinking
Speaker 1: about how does weigha affect me? Infect some of them
Speaker 1: are actually oblivious to how the impetsul climate change affect them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're just trying to get through the here and
Speaker 2: now before thinking about the future.
Speaker 3: And Tondo, fantastic reporting.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us and a really
Speaker 2: fascinating read that everybody should check out.
Speaker 3: And Tondo thanks sure, Thank you, Jo and Tondo, thanks
Speaker 3: so much.
Speaker 2: For joining US and for your reporting on this story,
Speaker 2: and you can read in Tondo's story on Bloomberg News.
Speaker 2: We'll put a link into our show notes some other
Speaker 2: stories we're watching in the region this week. Germany has
Speaker 2: now detected two potential cases of the Marlburg virus. The
Speaker 2: highly contagious disease mainly found in Africa, has seen in
Speaker 2: upticking cases as of recent According to the WHO, the
Speaker 2: virus has a fatality rate of as much as eighty
Speaker 2: eight percent. And Ethiopia has asked holders of its one
Speaker 2: billion dollar bond to take an eighteen percent loss in
Speaker 2: a debt restructuring strategy.
Speaker 3: The influential group of investors.
Speaker 2: Including the likes of Morgan Stanley, Asset Management and New
Speaker 2: State Partners, has already rejected such an offer in advance.
Speaker 2: You can follow these stories across Bloomberg, including the Next
Speaker 2: African Newsletter. We'll also put a link to that in
Speaker 2: the show notes. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to follow and review the show wherever you
Speaker 2: usually get your podcast. I'm Jennifer's Abasanja. Thanks for listening.