City’s heat wave plan ready to roll
With the summer season already upon us, the City of Johannesburg and its entities are pulling out all stops to ensure that residents – particularly the poor and vulnerable – are protected against probable heat waves.
Heat waves are known to increase the need to use water and air-conditioners.
“Johannesburg has in the past four years experienced three heat waves, meaning that roughly every summer season, we’ve had at least one heat wave during this period,” says Councillor Matshidiso Mfikoe, Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Environment and Infrastructure Services.
During this period, the City envisages rolling out its Heat Wave Response Plan, primarily to hospitals and old age homes, as well as places where the elderly live under “risky conditions”.
The Heat Wave Response Plan is a communication strategy primarily aimed at preventing health-related incidents and saving lives during heat wave spells. It also serves as a guide on how to effectively and efficiently deploy resources and services during these episodes.
The plan – to be rolled out largely by municipal entities such as Johannesburg Water and City Power – best informs service providers and communities on possible extreme weather events.
It includes best practice methods on how to educate communities about heat-related health issues such as dehydration, heat stroke and heat-exhaustion, as well as emergency services’ readiness and preparedness.
“At present, it is not known how the previous heat waves have impacted on people, especially vulnerable groups such as the elderly, sickly and young children because no data has been systematically collected. This plan will attempt to create a database to monitor impacts,” says MMC Mfikoe.
The Heat Wave Response Plan as well as other climate change adaptation responses, such as early warning systems, are in line with the City’s Growth and Development Strategy 2040 (GDS 2040) which, among other things, outlines the need to equip the city with the necessary services to make it a resilient, liveable and sustainable urban environment.
Climate science has shown that Johannesburg has experienced increased temperatures, both minimum and maximum, over the past 30 years, with climate models projecting a warming trend in both the short and long term.
“Heat waves are episodes of extremely high maximum temperatures over at least three days or more and are not uncommon in Joburg over the summer season. Current projections indicate they may become more frequent and intense. This poses risks to vulnerable population groups such as the elderly who live alone in poorly built structures, children and the sick in general,” says MMC Mfikoe
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The MMC says besides the expected warming of temperatures, cities generate their own energy, which emanates from built infrastructure, a phenomenon called urban heat island.
“What this means is that, a city will become warmer than its less built-up periphery. This urban heat island adds to the problem. This knowledge has spurred Joburg to develop a comprehensive heat wave response plan,” MMC Mfikoe adds.
The GDS 2040 states that 11 of the 12 years between 1995 and 2006 rank among the warmest years in the instrumental record of global surface temperature since 1850, and that cities and their populations will be disproportionately affected by impacts of climate change and variability in the future.
“It’s therefore important for cities to allocate time and resources (human and financial) to develop adaptation responses. This plan is just one example,” MMC Mfikoe€ says.
Population projections indicate that Johannesburg’s population will increase by six million people by 2040.
Temperatures are expected to increase by approximately 2.3 degrees Celsius in the near future (2056-2065) and by about 4.4 degrees Celsius in the distant future (2081-2100), said MMC for Environment and Infrastructure, Cllr Matshidiso Mfikoe earlier this year at the C40 conference.