Cape Town residents fill water bottles in 2018 as day zero approaches. d/Getty Images Credit: Morgana Wingar
Cities in southern Africa could experience worsening drought, which risks exacerbating long-existing inequalities in the region, a new study published in Nature finds.
The research team, led by Maria Rusca of the University of Manchester in the UK, and including researchers from Mozambique, the Netherlands and Sweden, used climate data and historical responses to droughts in the cities in southern Africa to analyze the vulnerability of Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, to an unprecedented drought threat.
While worsening droughts due to climate change are common in many parts of the world (Brazil, California, China and Spain), the study showed that Maputo would fare worse due to social and economic inequality.
The researchers used Cape Town's infamous "Day Zero" to illustrate how a drought can deepen inequalities in access to water in a southern African city. Southern Africa has a number of formerly colonized cities, like Cape Town, whose water supply infrastructure was built on the model of segregation and oppression of the apartheid regime, which the government called "separate development".
The study showed that the inequality present in Cape Town saw poor, mostly black residents experience greater water restrictions during the drought, while wealthier, mostly white residents were much less affected.
“These unequal levels of drought vulnerability are socially produced and must be understood in relation to the site of Maputo, shaped by colonial segregation, racial capitalism and neoliberal reforms,” the study states.
“Women in poor neighborhoods spend more time collecting water. Water rationing has an impact on urban gardening and food security, and low-income households have fewer opportunities to access water. additional water supplies than their higher-income counterparts," said William Moseley of Macalester College in the US, who was not involved in the study.
