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

Another interesting difference was noted in water governance structures in Windhoek City which not only buys water from Namibia Water Corporation (NamWater), but also energy from NamPower and then sells these as services to residents but under government regulated rates. In contrast, ZINWA is responsible for overall management of all raw water forms in Zimbabwe including all cities. Harare City is solely responsible for the treatment, supply and therefore charging and collection of rates for potable water and purchases water from the national distributor, then redistributes at a slightly higher cost as part of the revenue collection. The Zambian situation presents a different scenario where water in Lusaka is supplied by a Commercial Utility (CU)- Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company (LWSC), which was created in 1988 although it only started functioning in 1990. Initially, water was supplied by the local authority which lacked capacity and could not attract professionals. The CU is responsible for the abstraction (from both surface and ground sources), bulk transportation, treatment and supply of water for which it charges fees under a regulated tariff structure Water reforms of 1997 created the National Water and Sanitation Council (NWASCO), which regulates the pro- vision of water supply and sanitation services country wide. NWASCO regulates tariffs there- fore the CU is not able to have its own fee structure for water. Currently, Lusaka city cannot be said to have inadequate water, but the growing population

and the expansion of unplanned settlements compound the difficulties currently encountered in the provision of water and sanitation services. Currently, only about 30% of the city is sup- plied with water by LWSC, which is serviced by a sewer network. Ninety percent (90%) of unplanned households use pit latrine toilets; 3% have no toilet facilities and use bush toilets. Pit latrines are shared among several households, and this reduces the latrine’s life span and because of inaccessibility to the unplanned settlements suction tankers cannot empty the majority of pit latrines. Local boreholes are unprotected, resulting in severe health risks when there is contamination from pit latrines. City climate integration and planning. Durban is at the advanced stages of climate inte- gration and mainstreaming into municipal planning and implementation of high provides a good case and practice that can be adopted by it. This was achieved through, political commit- ment and oversight, and climate champions in various line departments within the city. Mather et al. [75] attribute the success in Durban to the development of high-level technical expertise within the municipality as well as advocacy by political and technical champions, and broad based and appropriate communication with stakeholders. In contrast, the city of Wind- hoek has an environment desk which deals with issues to do with water reclamation and recy- cling and use of wastewater for green spaces are imminent. While Harare Municipality has a

full department in charge of waste management, the authority has no department that deals with climate related issues, which exposes the authority when it comes to environmental pro- tection and management. In addition, although climate change adaptation strategies are being crafted at the national level in Zimbabwe through the former Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate (MoEWC), climate change adaptation has received minimum attention at the local level (Harare City Council) with no adaptation strategies in place and like most cities a department dedicated to climate and environmental issues is imminent [76]. Lessons on mainstreaming climate adaptation can be applied from the CoW that is in the process of finalizing development and approval of the Integrated City Strategy and Action Plan on climate change bearing witness of a good example of cascading the national policy on climate change to city level. Climate integration and adaptation in Durban is done in two ways: firstly, through the Durban Climate Change Strategy (DCCS), which lays out a city-wide approach to address ten interrelated climate change themes (Water, Sea level rise, Biodiversity, Food security, Health, Energy, Waste and Pollution, Transport, Economic development, and Knowledge Generation and Understanding). This mainstreaming is overseen politically by the City learning in southern Africa PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0227915 January 24, 2020 16 / 25