City to city learning and knowledge exchange for climate resilience in southern Africa

exception of Harare which has a low percentage coverage of informal settlements (Table 4). A notable difference in the informal settlements in the various cities is the permanency of the housing structures and its contribution to exacerbated climate impacts such as flooding. An example is Windhoek’s informal settlements, which are made up of temporary structures, whilst the structures in Lusaka are permanent. In Lusaka, the issue of flooding and solid waste disposal is a huge problem in informal settlements such as in Kanyama (one of the city exchanges sites); where only a tenth of the over 300,000 residents have access to potable water. Lusaka stands out, as it has a long history of permanent, unplanned and illegal settlements. In Lusaka, the proliferation of permanent illegal structures makes upgrading through redevelop- ment and provision of services costly and difficult to attain. Services such as waste manage- ment cannot be provided to these areas using conventional methods, therefore community- based options have been resorted to. Unfortunately, these Community Based Enterprises (CBEs) lack capacity and know-how, causing waste to pile up and subsequently contribute to flooding in some of these settlements. The lesson learnt from Katutura in Windhoek was the proactive actions taken by CoW in curtailing the expansion of the unplanned settlement by putting up fencing and allowing only temporary structures. In comparison, Williams et al. [69] demonstrated how the Palmiet Rehabilitation Project in

Durban, a multi sector partnership helped develop a deeper understanding of the current gov- ernance system, and embedded social values enacted in the case of the Quarry Road West informal settlement. This was helpful for integrative and transdisciplinary management of flood risk, at the climate change and water governance interface as climate change adaptation remains a challenge for decision-makers and policy-planners in the city. The need for engage- ment and more effective integration of informal settlements into local governance for water management was demonstrated lately, when informal settlements, including Quarry Road in Durban were hard-hit by the recent flooding (April 2019) that caused damage to infrastruc- ture. Reports projected cost of repairs for damaged stormwater pipes, washed away walls and culvert and subsequent repairs related to human settlements to be over hundreds of thousands of dollars including repairs to reconstruction and development program (RDP) houses, transit camp units, informal settlements, retaining walls and hostel blocks as well as costs related with electricity repairs to eleven substations. Only one out of Harare’s 33 wards is an informal settlement and plans to formalize this area are advanced. Here, very strict infrastructure and by-laws and standards by the city are applied and enforced. This has seen the city destroying informal structures through an initiative dubbed ‘Operation Murambatsvina ("Drive Out Trash"), which started in 2005 and has been

used by HCC in a bid to curb criminality and disease. Over the years, approaches to deal with informal settlements have also included formalization of informal settlements such as the famous Epworth and Churu Farm in Harare, coupled with building initiatives such as Opera- tion Garikayi/Hlalani Kuhle (Operation "Better Living"), which consists of building concrete housing. These efforts have led to limited informal settlements in Harare and the urban areas of Zimbabwe. A positive development was noted in that there are deliberate efforts to formal- ize informal settlements in the city of Windhoek. Energy issues. Currently, the Electricity Centre Board (ECB), regulates electricity distrib- utors in Windhoek and other regions and there is some co-dependence in terms of energy sup- ply to the city (Table 3). The major power plant is in the North of the country as well as the conflicts with Botswana over the use of the Okavango for water and energy supply. CoW buys energy from NamPower and supplies electricity to the residents directly whilst this is done at national level by South Africa (Eskom), Zambia (ZESCO) and in Zimbabwe through ZEDC, a subsidiary company of the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Association (ZESA). ZEDC is solely City learning in southern Africa PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227915 January 24, 2020 14 / 25